


When the Stars Threw Down Their Spears

by In_Time_of_Peril



Series: Heading Home [1]
Category: Doctor Who
Genre: F/F, Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-07-23
Updated: 2015-05-06
Packaged: 2018-02-10 01:18:42
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 14
Words: 30,722
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2005488
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/In_Time_of_Peril/pseuds/In_Time_of_Peril
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Mel, at a bit of a loose end in her travels after leaving the Doctor, never expected for Ace to come bursting back into her life.<br/>Ace, still dealing with a decade or more of manipulations by the Doctor, never expected to find a travel partner she could trust again.<br/>Neither of them expected much at all, really.  And they definitely never expected to fall in love.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. New Road

**Author's Note:**

> The overall title for this story comes from the poem "The Tyger" by William Blake.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Mel finds herself stuck in a cell, betrayed by Glitz and hoping for some miracle. When the miracle arrives in the form of Ace, Mel jumps at the chance to escape. What she fails to anticipate is that they will be traveling not with the Doctor in his TARDIS, but by themselves on Ace's timebike.

Melanie Jane Bush was not a violent person. Oh, she could use force when necessary to defend herself or others, and she was well versed in the use of some weapons, both those of Earth and those that might be considered slightly more exotic.

But on the whole, Mel was not a violent person.

However, she was fairly certain that, should she ever track down Sabalom Glitz, she would take out upon him whatever aggressions she did manage to harbour within herself. She would take them out upon him before he had a chance to even think of excusing himself for abandoning her to the Cryl guards.

As she sat in her cell, plotting her revenge, she felt a certain calmness wash over her. It was a bit like heavy meditation, really. Perhaps it was not the purity and positivity that she had always associated with meditation, but it was something to focus on.

_"I'll shove Glitz's head so far past his own event horizon..."_

And then her concentration, if not her calm, was shattered. Well, the wall across from her was shattered, which was a bit of a distraction.

There was a distinctive smell in the air, behind the normal whiff of smoke and stone-dust. Something she had not smelled in quite a while, but which was strongly connected to a rather solid sense-memory. And then the dust and smoke cleared, and she saw a somewhat familiar figure, a woman clad mostly in leather, standing atop the rubble.

"H'lo, Doughnut," the woman said, a cocky grin spreading across her face.

Mel had not heard that voice, or been called by that nickname, in quite a while.

"Ace?"

"The very same. Ran into Glitz on my way here; he told me about your little predicament."

"Told you, did he? Easy as that?"

"Well," said Ace, hopping down from the remains of the wall, "he was a little evasive when I asked after you, so I had to sort of - persuade him to tell me what was up."

Ace reached down and helped Mel to stand, then pulled out some sort of cutting device.

"Stand back a bit." The cutter severed the chain around Mel's ankle in an instant, but Ace kept hold of Mel's hand.  
"We'd better make a break for it. I can catch you up to Glitz, or..."

"Think I'll stick with you for a while," Mel said.

"Good choice. Come on, then."

Mel was not surprised at the trail of destruction they seemed to be making their way back through; Ace had seemed to her, at least in their brief previous acquaintance, to be very much about plowing ahead rather than going 'round things. She was surprised, however, when their journey led them not to the Doctor's TARDIS, but to a motorcycle.

"Where's the Doctor?"

"He's off on his own for now. I've got the bike here for getting around."

"Can it - I mean, does it go..."

"In time and space. Yeah."

"Oh."

"Hop on," Ace said, handing Mel a spare helmet.

"Is it quite safe?"

"Safe enough."

Mel had been on a motorcycle exactly once, and she had not been certain at the time that she enjoyed the experience. Still, this was her ticket out of a sticky situation. Jamming the helmet on, she climbed onto the seat behind Ace.

"Hang on tight."

That seemed obvious enough. Mel only hoped she was not clinging to Ace too tightly as she felt the engine purr to life and they started forward. When they began to pick up what could be deemed, at least in Mel's mind, a ridiculous amount of speed, she closed her eyes and tucked her head down and forward as best she could against Ace's shoulder. She was rather wishing that she had stayed in the remains of her cell.

* * *

After a few transmat hops, they stopped off on the tiny terrastructure of Zal, sometime in the 24th century, to get something to eat and to catch up.

"How long do you reckon it's been since you left the Doctor and I joined up?" Ace asked, carefully picking apart a Manesteran sticky bun and offering Mel half.

"Oh, a year and a bit, I suppose. How long's it been for you since we met?"

Ace grinned.

"Bit more than a decade."

Mel whistled softly.

"I thought you seemed older."

"Yeah. I traveled with the Doctor quite a while, though it was a bit more off-and-on at the end."

They chatted on, regaling each other with stories of their various travels and adventures with the Doctor and otherwise.

"You were at the charge of Randel's Gate?" Mel asked, her eyes wide.

"Yeah. That was when I'd spent a little time joined up with Spacefleet. Now, what's that bit about you and Glitz liberating the Crown of Rest?"

"Oh, that was just something we sort of happened upon by accident. We were running weapons to aid a rebellion on Lostop III, when what do I spot among the sonic grenades in one crate but a crown. I showed it to Glitz, and he knew right away what it was. Took a lot of doing to convince him we should just give it back to the Orptereans instead of ransoming it."

* * *

They spent the night in a rather small, rather cold room in an inn on Zal. Neither of them had many belongings, so the room was uncluttered at least, but there was still barely room to turn around without bumping into each other.

"Best I could get," Ace said.  
"I've been having issues holding on to credits, lately. Had a lot of repairs to the bike, and..."

"It's all right, Ace. I've stayed in tighter quarters than this. Besides, I suppose the closeness of things will mean we won't freeze in the night."

"Ha. Got that right."

They squeezed onto the narrow bed, trying to each get comfortable without displacing the other too much.

"Here," Ace said at last, "I suppose I'll take the floor."

"Nonsense. Much too cold. You lie down on the bed first, and then I'll sort of curl up against you."

Ace felt her skin go unaccountably hot at Mel's suggestion, but she went with it.

"Do you mind if I sort of use you as a pillow?" Mel asked.

"Not a problem," Ace said.

It was, indeed, not a problem. Except for the fact that Ace then lay awake for hours, nervous because it had been a long while since she had spent an extended time this close with anyone. She was nervous too because the warmth of Mel's body felt so wonderful, even above and beyond the fact that the room was chilly, and when she had reason to shift around a bit she could feel how Mel was soft in all the right places. On top of all that, she got a tingling sensation in her gut when she thought about the fact that Mel's head was resting on her shoulder. Otherwise, it was no problem at all.


	2. Run-In

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Stopping on Atraxi Minor for some supplies, Ace and Mel get mixed up in stopping a group of slavers.

"Got it!" Ace grinned, holding what looked like a spark plug triumphantly over her head.

"Good.  Let's get out of here, quick."

"Aw, what's the matter, Doughnut.  Scared of a gungy old tavern?"

"It's not the place I'm afraid of.  It's those fellows who walked in about ten seconds after you left."

Ace looked subtly in the direction that Mel was indicating.  When she saw the beings bellied up to the bar, she grabbed Mel's shoulder and directed her into a nearby alcove.  Even in the darkness here, Mel could see that Ace was shivering.

"Who are they?" she asked.

"Lethvan slavers.  Had a run-in with them in a few centuries.  Bad news."

"Slavers?  You don't suppose..."

"If they're here, they've either got money to burn from a recent sale, or they're planning one soon.  Maybe."

"Maybe?"

"It's a sale or a raid.  Either way, we don't really wanna be here when it happens."

"Ace..."

"Oh, don't do that.  Don't make that face."

"What face?"

"That face that everyone like you makes when they wanna talk everyone like me 'round into doing something goody-goody.  I mean, I'm all for justice, but Mel, these guys are tough."

"Well so are you," Mel pointed out.

Ace had never much liked admitting when other people were right, but in this case it was undeniable.

* * *

"Look, you stay here, all right?  I'll go and get as close as I can to their transport..."

"I'm going to come with you, Ace."

"Mel..."

"Please.  I'm not useless, nor am I helpless.  I can do a lot of things."

"I'm not denying that.  But this is liable to be a really bad situation..."

"All the more reason you need back up!"

Ace squeezed her eyes shut for a moment and sighed.

"Mel, do not fight me on this.  Please, just stay here."

"Suppose you don't come back?"

That was a thinker, anyway.  Ace reached down and unsealed the little carryall on the back of the bike.  Digging around, she located what she needed, then turned and shoved the items into Mel's hands.

"What..."

"That's two cans of Nitro-9 and all my credit discs, okay?  If I'm not back by morning, you go.  Take the bike if you want or leave it.  But go.  There're enough credits to get you passage to somewhere that might lead you to Earth in our time."

"But Ace..."

"Just - that's how it is Mel.  Okay?"

After a moment, Mel nodded.  She could only watch as Ace resealed the carryall, climbed on the bike, and started it up.

"Doughnut?"

"Yes?"

Ace reached back and shook Mel's hand.

"It's been good traveling with you."

* * *

Mel crept along the edge of the port.  Ace had to have known she wouldn't stay at their lodgings; no one who had ever traveled with the Doctor was great at following orders.  Still, there was no point in rushing to reveal her presence.

A glance at her tap-pad told her that she was close to the hangar for the Lethvan ship.  She had been the one to break into the local comm system and find out where the ship was.  Of course, she had also been the one to insist that they stick around and try to help anyone that the slavers might be holding captive.  Either way, she felt that she had sent Ace to a possible death, and she was determined to prevent that.

Crouching low in the shadows of the hangar, she saw someone moving across the tarmac.  They were walking slowly, almost a crouched as she was, and then suddenly they dropped to their belly and started to crawl like a soldier through enemy territory.  Something about the motion, the way the body shifted, told her that it was Ace.  She waited until the space between them had closed a bit, then she picked up a handful of gravel and slung it along toward the crawler.

The body rolled up into a kneeling position, weapon drawn.  There was a gasp, a muffled curse, and then the figure was crouch-walking toward her.

"Doughnut, I told you to stay..."

"I couldn't just let you - I couldn't let something happen to you."

"Yeah, well, thanks for the vote of confidence.  Look, if you're here, there's no way I'm sending you back now.  You'll just get caught.  But stay back by these crates, okay?  Don't move, don't speak, and no matter what, do **not** try to help me.  You got that Nitro-9 I gave you?"

"Mm-hmm."

"Keep it handy."

In a flash Ace was down again, crawling toward a side entrance of the hangar.  After a while, she disappeared around the building, and Mel sat, one hand clutching a canister of Nitro-9, the other digging nervously at the gravel.

She heard the soft squeal of Ace's ion beam cutter, then the rattle of a catch and the puffing groan of a pneumatic door sliding open.  Ace should have let her help: the door could have been opened just as quickly using the tap-pad to figure the access code, and there would be no immediate sign of tampering if and when anyone came looking.

There was nothing but silence for a long time, and Mel sighed.  Perhaps there was nothing.  Yes, that had to be it.  There was nothing in or around the ship.  Ace would come back, maybe tell her off or maybe just ignore her, and they would go on their way.

A sound caught her attention then; heavy footfalls approaching the opposite side of the building.  She heard muffled, guttural speech which reminded her vaguely of how the Lethvan had sounded that day in the tavern.  Of course, they were slurring a bit, were no doubt drunk.  Still, no matter how drunk they were, there were several of them, and they were large, no doubt with intimidating weapons.

Without really thinking it through, Mel popped the top off the Nitro-9, pulled the pin, and lobbed it as far as she could away from the hangar.  There was a quite satisfying explosion as she crouched back between the crates, and a moment later she heard and felt the thud of heavy Lethvan boots rushing past.  When they were away, and she could only vaguely see their forms in the distance, she ducked out of her hiding place and rushed around toward the door Ace had entered.  She nearly slammed into Ace coming out the same way, felt Ace's hands clamp down on her shoulders.

"What did you do, Doughnut?  What in hell did you do?"

"They were heading into the hangar.  I wanted to distract them, I..."

"I could've hidden from them until they all passed out!  Come on, we've gotta go.  Now."

They took off at a dead run, tearing toward the same fence they had climbed before.

"Was there cargo?" Mel managed.

"Yeah, a full complement.  We can't do anything about that though, because you got trigger happy."

"I'm sorry.  But Ace, we can't leave all of those..."

Ace stopped and turned, grabbing Mel's shoulders again.

"We can't help them, Mel.  We probably never could, and we really can't now.  So come on..."

"No!  No, I'm going to go and help."

Mel took off back toward the hangar.  She could hear Ace running after her a moment later, felt the swipe of Ace's hand against her jacket as the other woman tried to stop her.

"Doughnut, please, you can't - wait up!"

They could see the Lethvans ambling back toward the hangar just as they reached the door.  Mel looked to Ace, then ducked inside.

The ship wasn't large, at least not in the way it had seemed on the port listings.

"How do we get in?" Mel asked, knowing Ace would be just behind her.

"There's a maintenance hatch they left open, just there."

Ace was pointing up along the starboard hull of the ship.  Mel saw the area, a flap of what looked like oily reddish flesh against the grey bulk.  There were thick rungs welded below it, leading up.  Without a thought, Mel went right ahead and started climbing.  As she went, she could hear Ace clanging along after her every step of the way.

 


	3. Broken

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ace and Mel try to work out an escape plan for themselves and the more than 200 beings aboard the Lethvan slave ship. They find a particular ally among the captives: a young woman to whom they have closer ties than they could have imagined.

"If that was a maintenance tunnel, then I'm the Queen of England!"

"Pleased to meet you, your Majesty," Ace said.  
"And yeah, that's what the maintenance tunnels on these junkers tend to be like."

"How do they do anything in there?  It's a mess."

"Microslips, mostly.  Tiny, wormy things.  That flap we came in through?"

"Yeah?"

"That wasn't just some weird hulling.  That was skin."

"You mean the ship's alive?  A biomechanoid?"

"No.  Just that there's a layer of preserved star whale skin between the inner and outer hull."

"I saw a star whale once.  They're not red."

"Part of the preservation process.  It maintains the smell, the feel of the living skin.  The microslips are things that crawl around inside of a living star whale, sort of like sentient antibodies.  The Lethvans figured out how to con them into thinking these ships are the whales.  That's one part of the reason there are so few star whales left by this time.  They'll be all gone in a couple of centuries."

"That's horrible.  The poor things."

Mel rested her hand gently against a nearby bulkhead, as if comforting the long gone creature.  Ace just shook her head and moved on.

"The pits are this way," she said.

"Pits?"

"Where they keep the cargo.  The beings they're going to offload, here or somewhere else.  There're a few hundred, from what I could tell.  Only a couple of pits full."

"The ship doesn't seem big enough for a few hundred people."

"Oh, they make it work.  You ever learn about the slave trade on Earth?"

"In school, a bit."

"Well, this is about that bad."

They moved along a narrow passage, almost as small as the tunnel through which they had entered, and Ace gestured to a transparent panel in the wall.

"Look through there."

The briefest glance through the panel revealed beings, all sorts of species and races from the look, crammed wall-to-wall on narrow racks in the room.  Some were lying very still, not even seeming to breathe, and Mel was certain they must be dead.  Those who were moving looked close on to death themselves.  Some seemed awfully young, and there were even a few children.

"We've got to get them out of there, Ace."

"How, Doughnut?  Door's magnetically sealed, and I doubt your old tap-pad can get the access codes right for this ship.  Besides, those goons'll be in here any minute now."

"We've got to try."

Pulling the tap-pad from the narrow case that was strapped to her leg, Mel crouched and scanned along the seam where the door panel met the bulkhead.  She head Ace shift around nervously behind her and glanced back.

"Where are you going?"

"I'm covering you," Ace said, gun at the ready.

There was a fault in the seal system.  It was good, but far from perfect, and the smallest pressure in the right places might just wedge the door open enough to break the hold.  Mel reached back and tapped Ace's knee.

"Hmm?"

"I need your cutter."

"Mel, you **do** know what happens when you try to use an ion beam on this sort of door, don't you?"

"I'm not going to use the beam.  I just need the wedge."

She heard Ace sigh, and a moment later the device was in hand.  Mel slipped the wedge end into the faulty point of the seam, being careful not to press the switch that would activate the cutting beam.  One little shift, a slight wiggle, and she heard the faint _pop_ of the magnetic seal releasing.

From some distant part of the ship there were footfalls, the same ones she had heard earlier.  The slavers were on the ship now.  With any luck, they wouldn't bother to check the cargo; why should they?  They would probably sack out for the night, or at least confine themselves to other parts of the ship.  There was no way to get the captives out without drawing attention, of course, but Mel supposed that bridge would get crossed eventually.

The gap between panel and bulkhead was wide enough now to slip a hand through, and Mel wriggled her fingers into the space, applying slight pressure.  An awful smell poured out of the chamber beyond, almost making her recoil, but she held strong and carried on with her work.  The door panel actually slid rather easily and smoothly to a certain point, and she was beginning to think that this would all be easier than she had even dared to hope.

Of course, that's when an alarm sounded, and she felt herself grabbed by the collar and dragged back just as the panel slammed closed again.  She looked up into Ace's eyes.

"Knew this wouldn't work," Ace muttered, and then "are you all right?"

"Y-yeah.  I think so."

"Good.  Just - here, take this."

Ace pulled the little hold-out pistol from her boot and shoved it into Mel's hands.  The sounds of the Lethvan traders were moving toward this part of the ship now, and Mel felt cold fear spread through her.  Instinctively, she pressed the safety stud on the top of the pistol, heard the reassuring _click-hiss_ of the weapon activating.

"You any good with those?" Ace asked.

"I'm all right.  I can manage.  Is this sonic, or..."

"Charged particle.  Point and shoot, easy as -" Ace paused and fired on the first approaching Lethvan, "easy as falling downstairs."

Groaning inwardly at the comparison, Mel aimed around Ace's leg as three more Lethvans tried to crowd into the access passage.  One of them raised a heavy gun and fired, the beam bouncing off of a bulkhead and ricocheting around inside the tunnel for a bit before striking an unshielded clump of wires.  Ace dropped flat, pulling Mel all the way down too, then took aim and fired.  Another Lethvan went down, knocking one of his fellows back in the process.  The third approached, but Mel fired, grazing the side of his head and knocking him back against the damaged wire array.  There was a fluctuation then, a dimming of everything as during an Ohm drop.  The Lethvan fell, head a blackened lump on the end of his neck.

"Stay here," Ace said, creeping up into a crouch.  
"I mean it.  Actually stay here."

Then she was gone, bolting along the passage and out into the ship proper.  Mel heard her give a sort of roar, heard several more shots fired, and the sounds of sacks of meat striking a floor.  She cringed back, gun at the ready.  Ace cried out, not a scream but a strangled yell that tailed off suddenly into silence.  Several more awful sounds and Mel pushed back further into the corner she had settled in, wondering how close death was, how soon this would all be over.  For perhaps the millionth time, she cursed her behaviours, her dogged insistence on doing what she considered to be the right thing, consequences be damned.

Against all reason, she closed her eyes.  If death was finally actually coming for her, she had no desire to meet it bravely, face-to-face.  The last vestiges of the do-or-die Melanie, the brave girl from Pease Pottage, fled at last, replaced with the cowering little scrap of nothing that so many people had, on first glance, presumed her to be.

A hand on her shoulders raised the hint of a shriek from her lips, but another hand closed over her mouth before the full scream could be born.

"It's me.  Doughnut, open your eyes.  It's me."

Mel's grip tightened on the pistol, but she did look up, and it **was** Ace standing over her, ragged and bloodied now, but grinning.

"Come on, Doughnut.  We're okay.  I think I got them all."

Raising the pistol, Mel fired.  Ace flinched out of the way, then grabbed at the weapon.

"Doughnut, what the hell..."

Mel pointed back along the passage, to the twitching bulk of the dying Lethvan captain.  Ace saw the figure and puffed out a relieved breath, slipping an arm around Mel's shoulders.

"Okay.  Wow.  Saved my ass, didn't you?"

"I suppose I did."

They sat for a long time before Ace grunted, shifted, and stood.

"Come on, Mel.  Let's get those captives freed."

* * *

Most of the intended slaves were, as Mel had thought, deceased.  Of the few survivors, most were in a pretty poor state.  There were infirmary facilities on the ship, but operating most of the gear was beyond even Mel's comprehension.

"I don't - none of this works like anything I've encountered," she sighed.

"Me neither," Ace said, "and I was in Spacefleet.  We had some advanced stuff there."

A soft voice spoke from the doorway.

"Excuse me.  I - I have some medical training.  Perhaps I could be of assistance."

They turned and saw a young woman, pale and wan, a small child balanced on her hip.  Icy blue eyes regarded them through a fall of lank, dark hair.

"You'd know how to work this stuff?" Ace asked.

"Perhaps."

She was speaking English with the barest hint of some strange accent, and from the look of her she might just be human.  Ace approached her slowly, cautiously, as if wary as ever of some trick.

"You from Earth?"

The woman shook her head.

"My world is long gone, destroyed."

"By the Lethvan?"

"Someone far worse."

* * *

Ace winced as the bandage automatically tightened around her arm, stopping the ooze of blood from the shallow wound.

"Who taught you English?" she asked.

"A friend, long ago.  Seems like forever.  I've had little occasion to use it, lately, but I remember it enough."

Mel returned to the bridge and settled into the captain's chair.  Ace stretched out a leg to tap her boot against her friend's.

"You look comfy, Doughnut."

"I am, thanks," Mel grinned.  
"Those machines are patching everyone up, just as you said they would, Nyssa."

The woman smiled, then turned and collected her child, who was sitting quietly behind her.

"Everyone should be fine, I hope.  I feel horrible about those we couldn't save..."

"There was no way you could have done anything for them," Mel said.

"I know.  But I'm so used to helping others..."

"Just worry about you," Ace said, "and your kiddo there."

The little girl in Nyssa's arms shied away when Ace stood and tried to pat her on the head.

"She's fearful," Nyssa whispered, kissing the top of her daughter's head.  
"The Lethvans killed her father right in front of her.  My husband, Lasarti."

Nyssa's voice was choked with tears, but she did not weep.  Instead, she took her child and left the bridge.  When Ace glanced over, Mel's expression had fallen.

"What - what're we gonna do with all the - those - the remains in the pits?" Ace managed at last.

"I dug around through the systems, as much as I could.  There's an incinerator system.  If I can reseal the door properly, we can - sort of cremate them."

"Shit," Ace sighed, eyes squeezed shut.

"I - I've seen a lot," Mel went on, "but never anything like this.  All those poor beings..."

Ace shrugged.

"I've seen worse than this, but it still gets to me every time.  I don't show it, but -  those last few years traveling with the Doctor, everything was so dark, so mad..."

Nyssa had returned, and she cleared her throat to call their attention.

"Did you say you've traveled with the Doctor?"

Nodding, Ace straightened up in her seat a bit.

"We both have.  Why, do you know..."

"I traveled with him too.  Many years ago.  He - sort of saved me from being destroyed along with my home planet.  He was a good friend, like a father after I lost my own."

"You really traveled with the Doctor?" Mel asked, and Nyssa nodded.

"Two of him.  One had dark, curly hair and a silly grin.  I only knew him for a short time.  The other was younger, blond.  He liked to play cricket.  Yes, that was him.  My Doctor."

"Before my time, I guess," Ace said, "or after..."

"Probably before," Mel cut in.  
"I think Nyssa's second Doctor was before the first I traveled with."

"You were with him through a regeneration too?"

"Yes.  I mean, I didn't witness it.  I was unconscious.  But I was there."

"Was it - did it seem difficult for him?" Nyssa seemed concerned.

Mel shrugged.

"He had a hard time settling in, but eventually things were fine."

"Maybe for you," Ace muttered.  
"Professor got a bit dark by the time I was through with him."

"The Doctor was - is always dark," Nyssa said.  
"If he acts otherwise, I think it's only for the benefit of those he chooses to allow to travel with him."

 


	4. Where To?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The captives of the Lethvan are free, but now Ace and Mel have more problems. They've got no money, no plans for the future, and no way of assuring that Nyssa, whom they've befriended, will have a safe place to go.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks to aceinnatailsuit for the beta!

There was no good place to stow everyone. There were really only sleeping quarters for the crew, and those were just sleep-pods. None of the captives seemed too enamoured of the idea, and considering the state of the pits, Ace and Mel were inclined to agree with them. In the end, there were beings sleeping all over the ship, in corridors and side-chambers and access tunnels.

About a day after everything had gone down, planetary security finally bothered to show up. The disturbance call had been rather delayed, and Ace had no problem convincing them that this was her ship, that the captives were her crew. She ended up with a warning citation about rights violations - the ‘crew’ was in horrible shape, and there wasn’t room enough for everyone - and a few comments on ‘not emptying the incinerator in the atmosphere during take-off,’ but otherwise things seemed pretty smooth.

Two more survivors died in the week it took to arrange some sort of passage for everyone back to various homeworlds or stations. Most of Ace and Mel’s mutual credits went toward the bookings. Ace had complained a bit at first, but she settled down when a small Chimeron ran up and hugged her out of gratitude. Eventually, however, they were left with a few stragglers, no money, and a mostly useless ship, and Ace’s complaints started up again.

“We’re busted,” she said one night, lounging in her half-open pod.  
“Probably can’t even afford the transmat fee off of this lousy rock.”

“We could always take the ship,” Mel suggested.

“What’s the point? We don’t need something this big, that we can barely pilot and that’ll just guzzle fuel and probably break down every five minutes.”

“We’ll sell it then. For scrap.”

“That could work, I suppose. Not ‘til we see the last few captives safe, though.”

“Of course not.”

Finally, at the end of the third week, all of the captives had gone on to wherever they needed to be. All but Nyssa and her daughter, anyway. She had, she explained, never really managed to feel settled anyway.

“Ever since Traken was destroyed, I’ve always felt like a wanderer. Even when Lasarti and I got married, we traveled quite a bit, helping others. That’s what we were up to when - things went wrong.”

At the mention of Nyssa’s husband, her little girl clung more closely. The child, whose name was apparently Neeka, had never spoken once in all the time that Ace and Mel had known her. She was tiny and quiet, creeping around like an elf from a children’s story when she wasn’t almost glued to Nyssa’s side. Now, she whimpered and began to weep. Nyssa rocked her, whispered to her in some strange language.

“Isn’t there somewhere you can go?” Ace asked.  
“Somewhere you did live once? What about your husband’s people?”

“Lasarti didn’t have anyone besides Neeka and I. And I have no one, really, besides Neeka.”

“No friends? No one?”

Nyssa seemed lost in thought, staring at the ground. For a moment she smiled, but then the smile faded and she shook her head.

“There was someone, once. Someone I knew quite well. But I’ve no idea if she’s even still alive, or if she’d want to see me again.”

“You could always try. It’s worth a shot. Where does your friend live?”

“Well, I don’t know how I’d get to her. If she’s alive at all, she’s probably on Earth, sometime near the end of the 20th century.”

“Pretty tall order,” Ace said, “and I really can’t think of how to pull it off.”

“We could…” Mel began, trailing off.

“Could what? You got some credits socked away or something? Got a way to afford enough transmat hops from here to Earth? I’ve got the bike, but I can’t see carrying Nyssa and Neeka all the way there on it.”

“I wasn’t thinking of the bike. I was thinking we could call on a friend. An old, mutual friend.”

Ace’s eyes widened.

“No. No way. I’m not crawling back to the Doctor…”

“It wouldn’t be crawling. It’s not crawling to ask for help in a desperate situation.”

“You know, Doughnut, sometimes I forget you’ve ever met the Doctor. If we ask for help now, he’ll never let me live it down.”

Grabbing Ace’s hand, Mel dragged her a little away from Nyssa and pushed her down onto a crate.

“Look, I know you parted with the Doctor on less than ideal terms…”

“That’s the understatement of - well, if there’s never another understatement, that’ll definitely be the winner.”

“Ace, you’ve got to get past this fear of asking for help.”

“I’m not afraid, okay? But I - I just don’t like leaning on others for support. I grew up with that for most of my life, and I don’t like being reminded of it.”

For just a split second, Mel saw in Ace’s expression that young girl she had met so long ago on Iceworld.

“Ace - the Doctor’s not going to hold anything over you. He…”

“He’s different, Mel! He’s not like he was when you knew him. If he ever cared about anything but his precious little plans, he doesn’t anymore. He’s not even who I thought he was when I first traveled with him. He’s not silly or funny or nice. He’s not m…”

Ace clammed up suddenly and shoved Mel away, then stormed out of the hangar. A moment later, Mel heard the roar of the bike starting up, screeching away across the tarmac. She shook her head and went back to Nyssa.

“I’ve caused trouble, haven’t I?"

“Oh, no. No, Nyssa, it’s not you. Ace and I have our differences, sometimes. We really haven’t even been traveling together for a long time. We first knew each other just briefly at the end of my time with the Doctor, and from Ace’s point of view, that was a decade ago. She’s - a lot’s happened. Not that she was ever easy to get along with anyway, but life’s made her harder now. She puts up this tough front to cover all the little hurts that make her feel weak inside.”

Nyssa nodded.

“I knew someone like that. Not quite as far gone as Ace, but she - she was soft under the exterior of wit and anger.”

“Your friend?” Mel asked.

“Yes. Tegan. Oh, I’ve missed her. Ace reminds me of her quite a bit.”

“Oh? I’d like to meet her then. Never thought there could be another Ace in the universe.”

* * *

Night had nearly passed before Ace returned. She smelt a bit of cheap booze, but she seemed happy as she plumped a small box full of credit discs down in front of Mel.

“What’s all this?”

“I met a guy. Merchant. He wants to look into scrapping the ship. Gave me this up front, just from the description.”

“Ace, there are thousands of credits here!”

“And thousands more all around us, Doughnut. Say goodbye to the old ship and hello to the good life.”

With one final wide grin, Ace tried to sit, missed the chair, and lay down to sleep curled up in the corner of the galley. Mel left her there, covered with a blanket, and got a few hours of sleep herself. When she woke, it was to a much less pleased looking Ace rapping on the shell of her sleep-pod.

“Guy - guy’s here for the ship, I think. Or something. He’s talking really loud, and really fast, and - my head feels all fuzzy.”

“Here,” Mel said, crawling out of the pod and motioning Ace to go in.  
“Get some more sleep. I’ll talk to him.”

The merchant, who introduced himself as T. Julius Radewell every single time he spoke, seemed like exactly the sort of shady character Ace would deal with. Still, he was offering what a fair price for a ship of this size (pending inspection, of course,) and there was no hint that he intended to fool them. He was especially excited over the inter-hull sheathing.

“Star whale skin is a priceless commodity,” he said, shaking Mel’s hand one last time as he rushed off. From the way he was acting, Mel wouldn’t be one bit surprised if he returned with a pry bar and started dismantling everything himself.

Nyssa was in the galley, preparing food for herself and Neeka, when Mel returned to the ship. The women smiled at each other, and even little Neeka looked cheerful for the first time in weeks. She scrambled onto Mel’s lap, perfectly content at last to be around an adult who wasn’t her mother.

“We’ve sold the ship,” Mel said. “There should be enough credits for us to get you - somewhere. Maybe to Earth, maybe somewhere else. I’m not sure yet.”

“Anywhere will be fine,” Nyssa said.  
“I’m adaptable. Where’s Ace?”

“Sleeping. She went on a bit of a spree with the sale advance, and now she’s regretting it.”

Nyssa laughed, a light sound, and it was infectious enough that Mel joined in. Neeka didn’t laugh, of course, but she smiled even more brightly and actually clapped her hands.

“How old is Neeka?” Mel asked.

“She’s five. She’d just had her birthday before - everything.”

“Poor darling. Did - does she…”

“She can speak, normally. She actually manages very well for a youngster of her age; we spoke both English and Traken with her at home. It’s just since she saw what happened…” Nyssa trailed off.

“No wonder,” Mel sighed, combing her fingers through the dark curls of Neeka’s hair.

“She’ll be better, one day,” Nyssa said, turning and scooping her daughter up.  
“Won’t you, my darling one?”

Mel hoped, wherever and whenever Nyssa and her child might go, that they would find something like peace and the happiness they once seemed to have known.

* * *

Ace had all of their belongings moved from the small lodging they had stayed in before to the largest, grandest hotel in the city. Of course, the grandest hotel wasn’t really all it seemed, being mostly a place for freighter crews to spend a few nights of shore leave. The rooms were not so large, the bathrooms barely adequate, and there were quite a few females who were employed by the hotel to ‘entertain’ the guests. Mel blushed when she even thought of them, let alone when she had to walk past them in the lobby. Ace, for her part, seemed to enjoy spending time with them, and on more than a few nights she could be seen leading one or two of them back to her room.

By the time the ship had been mostly scrapped, Ace’s spending seemed at last to slow down. She split all of the payments with Mel, and they decided mutually to set some aside for Nyssa and Neeka as well.

“We’ll back convert it into something they can use wherever they end up,” Ace explained, “then give it to them as a going away present.”

"I just wish we could be certain that they’ll end up somewhere nice.”

“They’ll be okay. Plenty of good places that need a medic like Nyssa. Space stations, colony worlds. Safe places that the Lethvan, at least, won’t ever get to.”

“Hope you’re right,” Mel yawned. She stood and started to leave Ace’s room, only to be called back.

“Hey Doughnut?”

“Hmm?”

“You wanna sit up and talk for a while? I mean, we haven’t had a conversation in a long time.”

“I don’t know, Ace. It’s getting awfully late.”

“Well, we can just go to sleep then. It’s been a while since we shared a room. I kind of - well, I’d kind’ve got used to having you around.”

“There’s really no need, is there? I mean, we each have a room of our own now and…”

“And maybe I’m lonely,” Ace said, staring down at the table.

“Ace McShane? Lonely? Doesn’t happen.”

“Sure it does. Everyone gets lonely, right?”

“So go and get one of your friends from the lobby.”

Mel didn’t say it in a hurtful way, or at least she didn’t intend to. But Ace’s eyes suddenly flashed dark, and there was a wounded look on her face.

“I don’t want them. They don’t - they’re not my friends.”

“You seem to like them well enough.”

“Sure. If all I want is a quick - a good time. But they’re not - I don’t have to - sometimes you just want someone to cuddle, okay? And to talk to, really talk to.”

Ace was standing tensely now, her face such a bright shade of red that Mel wasn’t sure if she should laugh or be concerned.

“Well if all you want is to talk…"

"That’s all I want. Just to talk to my friend. And - well, sometimes I get cold. You’re nice and warm.”

“So I’m your heating pad as well?”

“No! I mean - I didn’t mean - I like you for you. But - because - ah, fuck.”

Ace sat, face buried in her hands. She seemed almost to jump out of her skin when Mel approached and patted her back softly.

“All right, Ace. All right, I’ll stay with you.”


	5. Indestructible

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ace and Mel have done what they can to assure that Nyssa and her daughter will be safe - but a sudden arrival from an old friend may ruin their plans before they can even be set in motion.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Once again, thanks to aceinnatailsuit for the beta (and the chapter title!)

“This transmat system should get you as far as Minor Andreas,” Ace said.  “They’re a medical station, always looking for help.”

Nyssa smiled and shook Ace’s hand gratefully.

“I have to thank you once more, for everything you’ve done.”

“It’s not a problem.  Really.  Just take care of yourself, and…”

Ace paused, froze up entirely in fact, when a familiar noise pitched up behind her.  After a moment, she whipped ‘round, gun suddenly drawn.  Mel thought of stopping her, but realised that was more danger than it was worth.  She simply held her breath and hoped that Ace would feel a little less trigger-happy than usual this morning.

The sunlight beat down on the strange, battered blue box that had materialised a short distance away.  After a handful of heartbeats the door of the box opened and a man stepped out, dusting down his coat, straightening his hat, and otherwise making himself presentable.  He looked up, saw Ace, and smiled.  He seemed not even a little put-out by the weapon she had trained on him, instead approaching her quickly, doffing his hat.

“Ace!  Oh, and you’ve got Melanie with you too.”

“What’re you doing here?”

“Why, I came where I was called.”

“No one called you here.  You can turn right back around and get back in that box and…”

Nyssa grabbed Ace’s shoulder, then stepped past.  She seemed confused at first, but the Doctor smiled even more broadly when he saw her.

“Is it really Nyssa?” he crowed.

She nodded.

“It’s me.  But you’ve changed quite a lot, Doctor.”

“More than you think,” Ace growled.  
“Stay back, Nyssa.  You can’t trust him as far as you can throw him.  Of course, he’ll throw you under the bus before you even get the chance.”

The Doctor frowned suddenly, drew himself up to his full height, and put a hand on the barrel of Ace’s gun.

“Put that thing away.”

“Why?  Don’t you want me to use it?  Probably got some bug-eyed horror you can’t stand to off by yourself.  Oh, but you’ll let me handle it.”

“Ace,” Mel hissed, but there was a dangerous, feverish look in Ace’s eyes.

“I haven’t - whatever you think, Ace, I’m not here to hurt you.  I’ve come to help.”

“When did you ever help me, in the end?” Ace spat, but after a few tense moments, she lowered her gun.

The Doctor moved a bit closer, but said nothing.   He looked incredibly sad - hurt, even.

“Nyssa,” Mel said, “perhaps you and Neeka…”

“Ah, yes, that’s what I’ve come about,” the Doctor said.  
“I’m here to take Nyssa and her little girl home.”

“Home?” Nyssa said.  “We have no home, Doctor.”

“Oh, but you do.  It’s been waiting for you, quite a long time now.”

“Nyssa, don’t go with him.”  Ace’s tone was almost begging.

“You must,” the Doctor said, ignoring Ace.  
“You know where you belong, Nyssa.  Who you belong with.  All these years, and you’ve never forgotten, have you?”

“Tegan,” Nyssa murmured, her voice as soft as an echo of lost time.  She was looking past the Doctor, beyond even the TARDIS, at something a great distance away; something that only she could see.

“That’s right,” he said.  
“Tegan’s been waiting for you.  She’s alone without you, but she needn’t stay alone.  I can take you to her, you and Neeka.  You can be so happy, Nyssa, like you never had the chance to be last time.”

“Nyssa, please,” Ace breathed.

“I have to go, Ace.  I have to be with Tegan again.  This chance - I may never have this chance again.”

“He’ll hurt you, Nyssa.  He’ll hurt Neeka, just like he hurts everyone.”

“You’ll be safe,” the Doctor countered.  
“I won’t let any harm come to either of you.”

Ace was glaring at the Doctor again, and her gun rose once more to point directly toward his left heart.

“You used to say I’d be safe,” she said.  
“What happened to that?  What happened to me?”

“That was different, Ace.  You know that was.  I did what had to be done…”

“And I was the pawn in your game.  Well I’m not going to let you hurt anyone else.  I know about you.  I know how to stop you.”

Mel watched everything happen slowly, creepingly, as if the air had gone heavy enough to slow time.  She saw Ace’s thumb slide up and depress the safety catch on the gun, heard the odd triple chirp of the arming system.  Without a thought for herself, she pushed Nyssa carefully aside and stepped between the Doctor and Ace.

“Please, Ace, don’t do this!  If you do something like this you’ll regret it forever.”

“Won’t be anything left to regret, at least not for long.  I’ve got plans for myself as soon as I’ve finished up with the old Doctor here.  Now move, Doughnut.”

“No.  I won’t let you hurt yourself like this.”

“Please, Mel.  Please, I don’t want to - please.”

“Ace, just put the gun down.  Just put it down and think.”

“You.  You called him, didn’t you?  You brought him here and now…”

“No.  I didn’t.  I never did.  But Ace, you’ve got to think about what you’re doing.”

“Why?  I let him do all the thinking for me; years and years of thinking.  I don’t remember how to think on my own anymore.  I always end up like him!”

“That’s not true.”

Mel felt the Doctor’s hand on her elbow.  She knew his reflexes, knew he could pull her out of the way before Ace had entirely squeezed the trigger.  She took a deep breath.

“Look, Ace, I’ll go with them.  I’ll go and make certain that nothing happens to Nyssa or Neeka, that the Doctor gets them to safety.  Will that - would you be all right with that?”

Ace’s arms tensed, her finger went a little tighter on the trigger, and her face twisted into an expression that was less rage, more terror.

“But then you’ll get hurt too.  He’ll hurt you too, Mel.”

“No he won’t, Ace.  I can look after myself for as long as it takes.  You know I’m stronger than I look.  Now please, for me, put the gun down.”

The weapon was shaking, and Mel could almost feel the pressure that Ace must be putting on the grip.  At last, though, the gun swung down, Ace’s thumb reconnecting the safety in the same moment.  Ace turned and walked away, stumbling a bit over her own feet as she went.

“Thank you, Mel,” the Doctor said.  
“You didn’t have to do that.”

“Yes I did.  You know me.  Bleeding heart Melanie.  Almost literally, that time.”

 

* * *

“What have you been up to, Mel?  Since we last met, what adventures have you enjoyed?”

“Oh, a bit of everything.  I went on with Glitz until he let me get hauled off to a cell…”

“Hmm?”

“He couldn’t keep his hands off of the crown jewels of Cryl.  Or the Pasha’s daughter, for that matter.  He pinned both violations on me and did a bunk in the middle of the night.  It was Ace who got me out.  Since then, we’ve been traveling together.”

“Ah-ha.  And just now?  I mean, how is it that you found Nyssa?”

“Lethvan slavers.  We liberated what was left of a cargo; Nyssa and Neeka happened to be a part of it.”

“I see.  I see.  Yes, Ace and I…”

The Doctor trailed off rather quickly, rushing to the far side of the console to flip a few more switches.  Mel, meanwhile, continued to stare up into the cathedralic vaults of the ceiling.

“The TARDIS has certainly changed.”

“Hmm?  Oh, yes.  Well, I like a bit of redecorating, now and again.”

They went on in silence for a time, the Doctor pressing buttons or switches, Mel wandering through the strange, dark expanse that seemed so foreign.  This was nothing like the bright TARDIS she had known.  She wondered if Ace was right, if the Doctor’s very nature had become this dark and vaguely terrifying.

“And what will you do next?” the Doctor asked.

Mel shrugged.

“I’m not exactly sure.  I had thought I’d go on traveling with Ace for a while, but I don’t think she’d be too happy about that, now.”

“You could be right.  She’s a stubborn one, our Ace.”

“I suppose I could stay on Earth.  From what you’ve said, the time we’re aiming for is fairly close to my own.  Nyssa and I are friends, and she might need someone besides just Tegan to help her adjust.  I can probably find work, as well, especially with all the advanced knowledge I’ve got now.”

“Not getting any bright ideas about inventing things that ought not to exist yet, are you?” the Doctor asked, and the way he smiled Mel could almost believed that he never had changed.

“Oh, no.  I’m just saying, my experience will make it easy.”  She grinned back at him, and he tapped her on the nose.

The hum of the TARDIS seemed to slow, to fade out, and there was the familiar bump of a well-done landing.  The Doctor checked the coordinates and let out a triumphant chuckle.

“Here we are!  Brisbane, Australia, twenty-third of December, 1990.  Mel, would you go fetch Nyssa and Neeka?  Let them know that we’re where we need to be.”

Luckily, their passengers were easily located.  Nyssa had managed, almost without trying, to somehow find the old room that she and Tegan had once shared, and she was still there, Neeka sleeping beside her on the bed.

“The Doctor says we’ve arrived,” Mel said quietly.

“Is he certain it’s the proper time and place?”

“Seems to be.  I never knew him to get terribly far off, but then, he was different when I was with him.”

“Well, that’s a nice change, anyway,” Nyssa said with a small laugh.

Mel laughed too, wondering just how poor a job Nyssa’s Doctor had done at navigation, then made her way back to the console room.  The Doctor was still there, fidgeting around, polishing the hatrack near the doors with his sleeve.

“Nyssa all ready to go?” he asked.

“I think so.”

“And you, Mel?  Do you know now what you want to do?”

He sounded so terribly old, and rather lonely.  Mel thought that some part of him wanted to beg her to stay, to travel once more.  She wondered if she might, if the idea of it was really her own or simply the effect of being around the Doctor again.  In the end, she shrugged.

“I’ll figure it out.  In time.”

 

* * *

Nyssa was hiding behind the Doctor, shaking like a leaf in spite of the summer heat.  Mel slipped an arm around her shoulders in a reassuring half-hug as the Doctor double-checked the address and rang the doorbell.

There was no answer at first, and so, checking his watch, the Doctor rang the bell again.  Inside someone shouted “All right, all right!”  There was the sound of footsteps approaching, and a moment later, the click of a deadbolt turning.

The door opened on a chain and a woman, perhaps in her thirties and rather attractive, peered out at them.

“Can I help you?”

“Ah, yes, hello!” the Doctor said, doffing his hat and giving a little bow.  “Tegan Jovanka?”

“You’re looking at her,” she answered, slightly unsettled.

“Yes, I’m here on behalf…”

“I already made my donations for the year, thank you.”  She started to close the door again.  The Doctor stuck the end of his umbrella in the gap, only for Tegan to shove it out.

“Tegan, we’re - we’re not here about a donation,” Nyssa said, her voice firmer and more confident than Mel had yet heard.

The door froze just millimetres from shutting completely.  A moment later it closed, then opened again fully, and Tegan came barrelling out, nearly shoving the Doctor aside in her haste. Then she saw Nyssa and Neeka, and she froze again.

“Nyssa?” she breathed.

“It’s me.  I’m really here.”

“What - how are you here?  Where did you - how?”

“The Doctor brought me,” Nyssa said, nodding toward the Time Lord who was teetering on the edge of the veranda.  He doffed his hat again when Tegan looked at him.

“Hello, Tegan,” he said, and she flinched.

There was a look in Tegan’s eyes, almost the same flash that went through Ace’s gaze when the Doctor was mentioned.  This, however, passed more quickly, and she glanced back at Nyssa and Mel.

“We - we should go inside,” Tegan said at last, ushering them all into the house.  The whole time, her eyes stayed fixed on Nyssa, as though she thought she might vanish if she looked away.

Mel made a rather half-hearted attempt to introduce herself, but Tegan was absorbed by Nyssa.  Even the Doctor looked as though he were feeling a bit left out watching the two of them together.

“I never thought - I just knew I’d never see you again,” Tegan rushed, her hand touching Nyssa’s arm delicately.

“I felt the same way.  I suppose we were wrong.”

The Doctor and Mel sat on the sofa, he leaning forward to rest his chin on the handle of his umbrella, she cradling a sleeping Neeka on her lap.  It was like having stepped into an old movie, watching lovers reunited, and Mel began to feel that they should leave, that they were intruding too far into a private world.

Nyssa and Tegan were talking all at once, filling each other in on the time that had passed, the events that each of them had been through.  Nyssa got as far as explaining how she and Neeka had ended up on the slave ship, and she broke down.  Without missing a beat, Tegan led her over to a large armchair and pulled her down to sit.

“I think now,” the Doctor whispered to Mel, “would be the best time for us to leave.”

“Are you certain?  I mean…”

“Oh, I’ve a feeling it’ll all work out.  Let’s just…”

He took Neeka, settling her comfortably on the sofa, then motioned for Mel to follow him quietly out of the house.  They were on the veranda when the Doctor paused, sniffed the air, and frowned.

“Trouble?” Mel asked.

“No.  I don’t think so.  Anyway.”

He pulled his sonic screwdriver from his pocket rather absently and turned it toward the door, no doubt intending to engage the locks.  Of course, he had it pointed toward himself rather than the door properly, so Mel ended up turning it in his grasp.

“Thank you, Melanie.”

“Any time, Doctor.”

They headed back to the TARDIS, and Mel could almost pretend that this was everything the way it used to be.  Nothing had changed, no time had passed, and no one had got hurt.

“Doctor?”

“Hmm?”

“What’s going to happen with Nyssa and Neeka?  They’ve got no identification, no papers…”

“Oh, that’s all right.  I’ve put in a call to some old friends.  UNIT will take care of it all.  They’ve got an entire division devoted to this sort of thing.”

The Doctor opened the TARDIS doors and stepped aside to let Mel enter first.

“There’s a fellow I once knew quite well,” he went on, “a former UNIT man.  He’s offered to step forward and be Neeka’s father, as far as the paperwork’s concerned.  Mike always did want children.”

There was a distant, bemused look on the Doctor’s face now.  He stood just inside the doors, leaning on his umbrella, no doubt pondering the imponderable.  Or perhaps he was only thinking of something silly and inconsequential; Mel found that she could no longer tell as she once had.

A sudden pounding on the TARDIS doors interrupted the Doctor’s reverie, and he frowned toward Mel.

“Are you expecting anyone?”

“No.”

The Doctor opened the doors and almost flew backwards as Ace, of all people, came storming past him.  She didn’t look quite so broken as she had the last time Mel saw her.  Now, she just looked angry.

“Found you!  I had to take fourteen transmats, go all through the vortex - I thought you’d probably bounced into a neutron star or something.”

“Ace, what on...”

“Look, Doughnut, just - I’m really sorry.  About before.”

“I think it’s the Doctor you need to apologise to,” Mel said.

Ace tossed a half-hearted “Sorry” over her shoulder, then walked straight up to Mel.

“You left - you left all your stuff and those credits and - you just ran off.  I thought I’d never see you and - well, you deserve - I mean, you earned part of those credits and everything…”

“Ace, slow down.  It’s - are you all right?”

“Yeah, I’m - why, are you?”

“Yes.  I’m fine, Ace.”

“Good.  Now come on.  I’ve got this job lined up for us and - unless you - you know, I’d understand if you don’t wanna travel with me anymore.”

Now, Ace looked more herself.  Her face had settled back into the hard lines that did nothing to conceal how young she looked and how really hurt she usually was.  Mel looked to the Doctor, who had gotten back to his feet and was closely studying something on the console.

“Ace, you held me at gunpoint.”

“Only ‘cos you stepped in the way.”

“You were going to murder the Doctor.”

“Reverse Elektra complex?” Ace shrugged.

“Ace…”

“Please, Mel.  I just - I need some help.  Someone like you - you know all the stuff that comes in handy for jobs like I pull.  You can tap into any communications system…”

“Within reason.”

“And if push comes to shove, you can talk your way ‘round anyone.  Please, Mel, I’m sorry, so sorry, about the things that happened.  Sometimes, I get - I’m all screwed up in the head.”

Ace’s expression had not changed again, but there was a deep look in her eyes, a pleading, lost look.  The sort of look that Mel could never resist.

“Doctor?”

“Hmm?”

“I’m sorry, Doctor, but I can’t stay.  I’ve got to - Ace needs my help.”

“Oh.  Yes.  Perfectly all right.  You run along now.  Have a good time.”

There he was, her Doctor again, pretending as if saying goodbye meant nothing at all.  Mel went to him, tried to shake his hand.  Instead of responding as she had expected, he turned quickly and kissed her forehead, before going back to studying a display on the console.  She almost thought she caught a glimpse of tears in his eyes.

She looked away, feeling oddly embarrassed, and on the display she caught a glimpse of faces flashing past.  She thought she saw her own, once, and Ace’s as well.  There was Tegan, and Nyssa, and a young boy with straight, dark hair and sad eyes.  Other images, other people she would probably never know, flashed past, and now Mel felt even worse.  She turned away, felt a rough hand suddenly grab her own.

“You ready to go?” Ace asked.

“Aren’t you going to say goodbye?”

“Already said mine.  Come on.  Bike’s waiting.”

As they left the TARDIS, Mel chanced one more look back.  The Doctor’s fingers were gripping the console tightly, too tightly maybe, and she remembered another of his selves, a big man with wild blond curls, who had held on just as tightly when his end approached.

She knew if she didn’t leave now, she would never leave at all.

The TARDIS was far behind them before they heard the old wheezing groan start up.  Neither of them had to look back to know when the blue box was gone, but Mel felt a pang in her heart.  She wondered if she would ever see the Doctor again.

“Come on, Mel,” Ace said, suddenly chipper.  
“Lots to do.”

“Right.  Where are we off to?  Or when?”

“Gonna have to ping-pong around a bit,” Ace said, tossing Mel the spare helmet and climbing on the bike.  
“But we’ll end up in London in about, oh, 1894.”

“Sounds like we’ve got an adventure ahead of us.”


	6. Desire

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ace is beginning to lose all ability to deny that her feelings for Mel have moved to a new level.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As ever, thanks to aceinnatailsuit for the beta.

"Ace?"

"Yeah?"

"Are you feeling quite well?"

"Guess so.  Yeah.  Why?"

"You just seem distracted.  Your eyes look all blank and glazy like maybe you've got a fever."

Mel approached without warning and pressed the inner edge of her wrist to Ace's forehead.  Normally Ace would have shied from the touch, but now she leant into it.  Mel’s skin was soft and cool, and there was some sort of nice scent involved as well.

"But you don't feel as if you're too warm."

"I was just thinking, I guess."

And indeed Ace had been thinking.  She had been thinking, as she watched Mel pace on the far side of the chamber, about how to get back to their room at the local guesthouse as quickly as possible.  They were required to check in with the local Commandant, but afterward, Ace intended to feign tiredness.  She needed to be in their room, alone, so that she could get some privacy while she continued to think about Mel.

Maybe once they got back to the guesthouse, she would send Mel out exploring, talking to the local populace a bit.  Mel had proven adept at getting the information they needed to pull off their little jobs.  She was cheerful and kind, had a way with most of the less violent sentient beings out there, and was brilliant at tapping discreetly into local communications systems.

Still, it might not be all right to send her out alone.  It was never certain when someone opposed to them already knew they were on-world.  And also, Ace would feel rather disgusting if she sent Mel out just so that she could get off on the mere thought of her.  Especially if something went wrong because of it.

"Ace!"

"Huh?  I'm sorry, Doughnut.  Just a lot of stuff."

"Yes, well, you do look a little ill.  I think perhaps once we're done here, we had just head straight back to the guesthouse so you can have a lie-down."

Mel crouched and rested her hands on Ace's knees.

"You need some good sleep," she said, "and someone to look after you."

"And you're gonna look after me?"

"Of course," Mel said, standing again, patting Ace's shoulder gently.  "That's what friends do, right?"

And Ace smiled and nodded, because what else could she do?

* * *

The room was ridiculously warm, and even lying completely naked and exposed on the bed, Ace was sweating.  There was comfort in knowing that Mel would be away for a while, checking up on their supplies for the next few weeks.  Sure, Ace would have felt better going with her, or having her back in their room already, but then lately, when Mel was around, the feelings had been getting overwhelming.  They were good feelings, true, but they could be dangerous.

Sometimes, Ace thought it might be better if she were emotionless.  Maybe the Cybermen had the right idea.  If she wasn’t distracted by emotions, she’d be a lot better off.

But no.  Sometimes, these feelings were useful.  The caring about what happened to Mel was especially good, because it kept Ace on her toes.  Still, the physical feelings, the wanting and needing that was like a painful little itch in her brain, could be incredibly frustrating sometimes.

Rolling over, Ace buried her face in the pillows.  Mel’s smelt really nice, spicy-sweet like whatever it was that she used to clean her hair.  There was a smell under that too, something that the average person couldn’t usually pick up.  It was just the special scent that belonged to Mel personally, her particular olfactory signature.  The ability to pick up that little trace was one of the few things that made Ace almost bless the Cheetah virus.

Her legs had got a bit tangled in the sheets when she turned, and now she wriggled around more, let some of the fabric slide between her thighs and brush against her sex.  If she moved her feet just so, she could tease herself.  It was nice, soft and easy, like a first time.

“Fuck,” she mumbled into the pillow, and then her hips started to move, seemingly of their own volition.

The sheets, cool when they had first fallen into place, were rapidly warming to her, and where they met her sex they were damp, or rather soaked, with her wetness.

“Oh, fuck,” she muttered again, moving in any way she could to keep the sensations going.  This was going to be a hard one.

Her mind was running over a mental catalogue of everyone she had ever been with, everyone she had ever even wanted to be with.  Even the not-so-good memories seemed helpful at the moment.  Eventually, a certain pattern of faces and experiences fell together, fueling her imagination.

“Please,” she begged, wishing there were really someone there with her, beside her, above or beneath her.  She wanted touching, wanted kisses, wanted heat to press against her own.

Her mind dug, searched, for the perfect end to the train of thought.  She knew what she wanted, what place her mind would go to almost immediately, but she avoided it, pushed it aside.  There was a fire in her belly, a need.  Release was the only answer, but she was determined to control herself as much as possible.

She slipped her hand down under herself, between her legs.  At first, she rubbed her clit through the sheet, but she knew she needed more direct contact and wriggled her fingers under the fabric.  One finger on either side of her clit, she went to work none too gently, straining, rubbing, pressing, tugging.  She was right on the edge, nearly to the place she needed to be.

Try as she might to think of anyone and anything else, her mind kept cycling back to Mel.  That red hair, the way it shone in the sunlight and glittered in the moonlight, the way it lay against the impossibly pale skin.  Oh, that skin.  Ace had only seen Mel nude a few times, but she desperately wanted more than to see.  She wanted to caress, to squeeze and press and kiss and bite.  She wanted Mel to do all of those things to her in return, wanted to let herself go under Mel’s touch, to ride hard against Mel’s fingers or mouth until there was no turning back.

“Fuck.  Oh, fuck, Mel, I need it - please, please, please, let me…”

Ace came roughly, violently, biting down against Mel’s pillow, her free hand gripping the edge of the mattress so hard that she thought she would never be able to let go.  She found herself growling and whimpering all at once somehow, lost in the amazing feelings.

When she was finally, fully under her own control again, she felt at peace, refreshed, as if she had rested perfectly for a long time.  But then she felt the dampness of the sheets, a combination of her sweat and her need, and she was disgusted.  Untwisting herself slowly, she balled the sheet up and tossed it across the room.  It was a warm enough night to sleep without covers anyway.

She had got past her self-disgust and was drifting toward sleep when she heard the latch of the door pop.  Out of instinct, she grabbed her hold-out pistol, relieved when the person who staggered into the room was only Mel.

“It is a scorcher of a night, huh?” Mel said.

“Yeah.  Pretty warm.”

Mel smiled and plopped down on the foot of the bed, unlacing her boots.

“We’re good on supplies for now.  I checked your credit balance for you; you’re dropping again.”

“Damn repairs to the bike,” Ace muttered, pretending to be closer to sleep than she was.

She could hear Mel moving around, undressing, and it took all of her self control not to peek.

“I think I’m going to take a nice, cool shower,” Mel said, and Ace breathed a sigh of relief when she heard the other woman step into the bathroom.

These feelings were really getting out of hand.  If something didn’t give soon, Ace thought she might just run up one of the nearby mountains and take up residence in a cave somewhere.  It would be a damn sight easier than coping with her desires, anyway.

* * *

When Ace woke in the morning, the room had cooled a bit.  Still, there was warmth against one side of her body, a distinct feeling of closeness.  She looked down, then looked away and tried not to move.

Sometime in the night, Mel had cuddled close to her, forehead against Ace’s shoulder.  Their hands were dangerously close together, and Mel’s toes were wiggling now and then against Ace’s leg.

Also, Mel was entirely naked.  Ace didn’t remember that from the night before.  Of course, she couldn’t recall Mel returning from the shower, either.  They had slept naked at the same time before, but never in the same bed.  This was something that only happened when they splashed out on a larger room.

There were really only two options: roll away and risk waking Mel, or stay perfectly still, barely even breathing, and wait for Mel to wake on her own.  Either way, Ace was certain there would be a scene.

She finally settled for gently edging away, not much more than a hairbreadth at a time, until there was an appreciable space between them.  Of course, as soon as she felt that she had reasonably made room, Mel shifted and stretched.  Ace couldn’t help but glance over, and she groaned at how good everything looked.

“Good morning,” Mel chirped, and Ace did not understand how anyone could be so cheerful in their situation.

“Yeah.  Hi.”

Now Mel was sitting up on the edge of the bed, back to Ace, and Ace was turning toward the wall, desperately trying to not think about the fact that she was hungry in more ways than one.

“Have you got anything planned today?”

“Me?  No.  You?”

“Well, I do need to check on some things.”

Mel stretched again and then lay back down.  She seemed to be rather comfortable with their mutual nudity.  Perhaps she had drunk the local water and was having a delusion or something.  Ace had heard that there were strange things in the beverages around here.

“Shouldn’t you…” Ace began.

“Hmm?”

“Should you - maybe you should get dressed.”

“Oh, I will.  Still waking up a bit, though.  Trying to think of what I need to do for the day.”

“But - you’re naked.”

Mel shrugged; a small part of Ace’s self control died with a groan.

“So’re you.”

“Yeah, but - I’m used to it.”

Frowning, Mel sat up once more, then climbed out of bed.

“You know,” she said, “you sound about as prudish as my parents sometimes.”

“Well maybe parents are right.  About some things.”

Laughing softly, Mel finally began to pull on some clothes, and Ace breathed a sigh of relief.

“Never thought I’d hear Ace McShane agree with parental judgment.”

“I’ve matured,” Ace growled, burying her face in her pillow to hide the painful level at which she was blushing.

A while later, Mel spoke up again from near the door.

“I’m off.  Catch up with you later?”

Ace grunted noncommittally.

“Oh, and by the way Ace?”

“Hrrr?”

“When you blush - well, it’s a sort of all-over thing.”


	7. Peregrinations

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After a stop to make some repairs to Ace's time bike, our intrepid duo goes on the hunt for a set of rare books. Along the way, they narrowly avoid encounters with several incarnations of the Doctor, who seems to have his own plans for the books.

"Hand me that spanner?" Ace said, pointing to a spot on the workbench Mel was standing next to.

Mel found the required item and handed it over.  As she did, she fought down an urge to reach out and let her fingertips trail over the little band of skin on Ace's lower back that was just visible between shirt and trousers.

Where that urge had come from was beyond Mel.  She had felt a lot of things toward Ace: annoyance, fear, friendship, annoyance again.  But the lustful feelings she was having at the moment were very new.

She decided to chalk it up to the fact that the workshop they were in was incredibly warm, almost uncomfortably so, and her mind therefore needed to distract itself from the heat.  The problem with that was the fact that, when she thought of Ace, imagined the things they might do together, the room only seemed to grow warmer.

Looking around, she found a clean rag and swabbed some of the sweat from her brow.  Her hair had begun to pull loose from its braid, and some of the strands were hanging down to brush her neck.  It felt like the tickle of warm breath against her skin.  Mel shut her eyes and sighed, letting her mind drift to strange but not unwelcome fantasies.

She would not, she knew, mind if there really were someone, the very someone who was currently busy making repairs to the time bike nearby, leaning into her personal space, their breath slow and teasing against her flesh while their hands - well, that was too far a thought for here and now.  She would save it for the next time she was alone.

A gentle touch on her shoulder shocked her back to reality, and when she opened her eyes Ace was staring at her, really seeming to concentrate on her in fact.

"All fixed," Ace said, and there was a confused expression on her face that melded with a funny little half-smile.

"You okay?"

"Yeah.  Yeah, I was just thinking about a programming error I once made back in school."

"Oh.  Well, bike's all fixed up.  What say we test-drive it back to the huts, pick up our little bit of stuff, and then head on?"

Mel nodded.

"Sounds fine."

Ace grinned now, stepping aside and making a sweeping gesture toward the bike.

"Hop on."

"What?"

"You drive this time.  We're not going into the time vortex yet, and I thought you wanted lessons."

"Oh, I do, but..."

"I'll be right there behind you, Doughnut.  Don't be scared."

Ace's hand went back to Mel's shoulder, stroked gently down along her arm.

"It's all right if you don't want to..."

"Oh, but I do."

Mel stepped forward, grabbing a helmet and settling cautiously onto the bike.  She felt Ace settle behind her, very close behind her indeed, and then Ace's arms were tight around her waist.  There was a crackle from the little commpatch inside the helmet, and Ace's voice sounded a bit distorted.

“You know how to do this.  Don’t be nervous.  Remember, red, green, blue, and then gold once we’re out on the street proper.”

Kickstarting the bike, Mel hit the proper switches and felt the bike begin to back itself out of the workshop.  She could hear the smile in Ace’s voice over the commpatch.

“That’s it.  Slow and steady.  Don’t forget the turn.  There ya go.  That’s my girl.”

Mel felt her heart leap into her throat, and she let the bike wobble a bit in her distraction.

“Okay.  Okay.  Take it easy, Doughnut.”

“Sorry, Ace.”

“Don’t worry.  Don’t be scared.  I’ve got you safe, remember?”

Ace's grip around her waist seemed to tighten ever so slightly, and Mel sighed softly.

“Am I hurting you?”

“No.  I’m fine.”

They were onto the street now, backed into the position needed to take off toward the huts where they were staying.  She felt Ace’s fingers twitch against her shirt slightly.

“Okay, Mel.  Gold.”

Thumbing the proper switch, Mel felt her stomach lurch as the bike zoomed forward, picking up speed enough to negotiate properly.

“You got it.  You’re a natural at this.”

They made it back to the huts safely, somehow, but as they dismounted from the bike, Mel could feel her whole body shaking.  Ace must have noticed, because she turned back and wrapped an arm loosely around Mel’s waist.

“You were great.  You’ll be able to handle everything without me, in a bit.”

“Oh, I don’t think - that is, I couldn’t...”

“You’ll be able,” Ace repeated, “but you won’t have to.”

 

* * *

This was not a sight that Mel wanted to see every day.  Definitely not.  She was fighting down nausea, and she even heard Ace retch slightly as they stepped into the room.

“Someone - someone’s been at the breaker cannons in here.”

“Breaker cannons?” Mel asked.

Ace nodded.

“Minor Sontaran weapon.  They didn’t use them for long.  If you look around enough, you can guess why.”

“It - takes out everyone?  Including the user?”

“Bingo,” Ace said, turning away to retch again.

This had been, from the look, a rather cheerful establishment once.  The walls had been brightly painted in a pattern almost like a rainbow, and in the corner sat the shattered remains of musical instruments.  No doubt the mess coating them had once been the band.

“These breaker cannons…”

“Break stuff, Doughnut.  Well, they break everything.”

“Who created them?  And who besides the Sontarans would use them?”

Ace shrugged, nudging aside what looked like a chunk of skull with the toe of her boot.

“The Doc - we always thought maybe the Capricorn Group had built them.  Funded whoever did, anyway.  And I’ve never heard of anyone besides Sontarans handling them.  Even then, it was only in really desperate situations for a really short timespan.  Definitely not by now.”

“But whoever did this…”

“Was probably after the same thing we’re after.  I’m willing to bet they didn’t get it, either, since that -” Ace pointed to a mass of blood, bone, and dark metal near the other entrance, “is probably what’s left of them.”

“Oh.  It’s too - it’s disgusting.”

“Yeah, well, welcome to my life, Doughnut.  You’re welcome to cut out at the next safe planet.”

Striding over the various puddles of remains, Ace made her way toward what seemed to have once been a central stand in the room.  Just as she approached it, there was an echo of footsteps from the far entrance.  They were quick, accompanied by something like the tap of a cane, and Mel was not certain that she wanted to be here when someone else arrived.

Ace was rushing back to her, shoving her out the way they had come.  They ducked into an alcove, Mel closer to the wall, Ace leaning out slightly to see who the intruder was.  Her hand was on her gun, but she left it holstered.

“That - that little shit!” she hissed.  “That absolute fucking shit!”

Mel leant around, trying to see who had entered the room now.  She gasped, one hand going to her mouth involuntarily when she saw the Doctor picking his way neatly through the sludge of bodies.  He was followed, quickly, by a tall man and a woman.  The tall man wore a ridiculously long scarf, which he was continuously looping over his arm to keep out of the blood.  The woman was blonde, patrician looking, and seemed rather bored with the whole operation.  Ace let out a little, strange moaning sound when the woman came into view.

“There now,” the Doctor said, pointing to the same stand that Ace had earlier been approaching.  “I’ll wager it’s in there.”

“Well then shouldn’t we go ahead and fetch it out?” the woman asked, looking around the room disdainfully.

“Can’t rush these things, Romana,” the tall man said.  “Matters such as this are delicate.”

“Oh, delicacy is your watchword,” the woman sighed.  “Crossing your own timeline back and forth to get hold of the tomes.”

“Got it!” the Doctor called, pulling a heavy, iron-bound wooden box out of the remains of the stand.

“So the Mentors were right!” the tall man beamed.

“The most important writings in our universe…”

“ Perhaps the most important, Romana.”

The woman sighed and went on.

“The most important writings in our universe, hidden in an ice cream parlour.  But why?”

“Well,” the Doctor said, “who would think to look here?”

“That fellow did,” the tall man pointed out, gesturing with the end of his scarf in the general direction of the breaker cannon wielder.

“Yes, well - anyway, now that I have them…”

“Now that  we have them,” Romana pointed out, grabbing the case from the Doctor.

“Prrrrecisely; oh, you always will be perceptive.”

The tall man raised a finger to his lips.

“We’re already courting enough disaster, old man, without you telling Romana things she doesn’t need to know.”

Fixing the tall man with a withering glare, she shoved the box into his arms.

“You’ve got no say in what I get to learn.”

As the trio turned and left the parlour, Mel was suddenly aware of a small sound very close by.  Something like an engine trying to turn over, but quieter.  She realised, after a moment, that Ace was growling softly, almost like an animal.

“Those bleeding little - oh, they…”

“Ace, what…”

Whipping around, Ace stared at Mel for a long moment.  There was something wrong with her eyes, something like a glow, a blurriness.  She blinked hard, and the strangeness was gone.

“I knew the Doctor was tricky,” she muttered, “but what’s he up to this time, I wonder?”

“Are you - quite all right, Ace?”

“Yeah.  Mad as hell.  Ready to go strangle a couple of Time Lords…”

“A couple?”

“You saw those others?  That woman was Romana.  Lady-bleeding-President Romana.”

“Lady President…”

“Of Gallifrey, yeah.  And that other, big old scarecrow - that was one of the Doctor’s other selves.”

“Isn’t it incredibly dangerous for him to be interacting with his other incarnations?”

“Yeah.  Of course knowing him, that’s probably why he did whatever he’s doing right now.  I’ve got to run this down, gotta…”

“Ace, perhaps you ought to leave it alone.”

“I can’t, Mel.  Those books - that bounty we’d been offered was probably a tenth of what they were worth.  Now the Doctor has them.  Two of him have them.  Plus another Time Lord with a record of not exactly going by all the rules.”

Stepping out of the alcove, Ace made her way back into the parlour.  Mel hated to follow, but after a moment she did.  There, amid the blood and bones, Ace was crouching near the stand, studying the remains of it.

“This wasn’t a moveable,” she said.  
“It was part of the building.”

Standing, she strode back toward Mel.

“Doughnut, let’s go get the bike.”

“Where are we headed?”

“Back to when this place was built.  We’re gonna beat the Doctor at his own game, whatever it is.”

 

* * *

They stopped in front of the hotel, looking up at the half-built skeleton.  The place looked eerily similar to how it did in the aftermath of the breaker cannon fifty years later.  Only the scaffolding left in place by the construction workers let them know they had indeed gone back in time.

“Come on,” Ace said, tromping up the steps.  Mel held back.

“Ace, this mightn’t be a very good idea.”

“It’s the only idea, Doughnut.  At this point, I don’t even care about the bounty.”  She glared at the door as though imagining the Doctor in its place.  “I just want to get ahead of the Doctor.”

Mel grabbed at Ace’s sleeve, pulled her back down a few steps.  “Perhaps he’s doing what’s right, Ace.  Perhaps he’s not so evil as you seem to think.”

“Doughnut, he’s fooling around with stuff that, from what we know, is highly important.”

“Well, that’s the Doctor.”

“He’s crossing his own timestream to do it.  That means he’s risking his own existence…”

“So he probably has a very good reason!”

Ace’s fists were balled up at her sides; she looked ready to actually fight about this.  There was a ripple of the muscles in her jaw, and Mel knew that it might be best to back down.

“You weren’t there with him when I was,” Ace said, teeth clenched.  “You don’t know some of the things he did and said.  Some of the risks he took, or that he made me take for him.”

Once that was said, Ace seemed suddenly calm.

“Look,” she went on, “if you’re nervous or scared, just go wait with the bike.  I won’t fault you for it.”

“I’ll go with you.  But Ace, I still think this could be a bad idea.”

“Yeah, well, you think your thing and I’ll think mine.  Maybe someday we’ll meet in the middle.  Now come on.”

It was late enough in the day that no one was around.  Mel had thought there might at least be someone working security, but Ace had dismissed that idea.  There were barely enough settlers on this planet yet for anyone to steal things from the construction site.  Still, Ace was moving cautiously as they entered the building, checking every corner, watching every point of reflection in the rooms.

The parlour, or what would be the parlour, was near the rear of the building.  Unlike the exterior, the inside looked almost nothing like its half destroyed state, and Ace got them turned around into the wrong corridors a few times as they tried to find their way.  She finally let Mel lead, and they were at the right spot in no time.

“Looks a lot better now,” Ace said glancing around, and Mel had to agree.  Any version of this place had to be better than the last one.

They stepped into the room, and Ace nodded, heading straight for the half-finished stand at the center.

“Bet it’s not here yet,” she said, “but at least we know it’ll be here soon.  We can keep an eye on the construction in the next few days…”

Suddenly, footsteps sounded from the far passage.  Just like last time, Ace spun around and rushed Mel out of the room.

“It’s our damn day for getting interrupted,” Ace muttered.  She was the one further back in the alcove this time, and she pressed a gentle hand to Mel’s back.

“See anything?” she hissed.

“Not yet - wait!  I think it’s a workman.”

A man in a dark coat had entered the room, a toolbox tucked under one arm and what looked like the case the tomes were in under the other.  He was too tall to be the Doctor, at least the most recent one they knew, and Mel didn’t think he was the one with the scarf.

“He - I can’t tell if he’s anyone - oh, no.”

“What?  Who is it?”

“It’s - he - not him too.  Oh, he was so sweet.  How can he be mixed up in this?”

The workman had whipped off his cap, revealing his mop of wild blond curls.  Mel knew him in an instant, almost called out “Doctor!” without thinking.

“That the Doctor as well?” Ace asked, leaning forward and resting her chin on Mel’s shoulder to peer around.

“Yes.  The first one I knew.  He’s - he’s definitely got the tomes.”

“Well, let’s go and stop him!”

“We can’t!  He mightn’t know me yet, and he definitely won’t know you.  But that’ll just mess up the future.  We can’t risk it.”

Ace sighed.

“Guess we’ll just have to go in once he’s done and get it, then.”

The Doctor had knelt by the stand, humming cheerfully to himself as he slid the case in at the bottom, then fitted a board over the opening.  Out came hammer and nails from his toolkit, and he bashed away, still humming, though once he stopped and let out a startled yelp, shaking the injured digit.  Mel almost had to laugh.

“Mashed his thumb, didn’t he?” Ace asked.  
“Serves him right.”

“Oh, this Doctor - he’s not bad.  He must be doing this for a good reason, Ace.  Or at least he must think it’s right.”

“Thinking and knowing are different things, Mel.”

“Then he knows it’s right.  Believe me, the Doctor - my Doctor - wouldn’t do this if he didn’t know it was going to turn out for the best.”

“You sure about that?”

“Ace, maybe the Doctor got dark by the time you left, but when he was this man, he was - well, he was a bit loud, rather sedentary, and sort of full of himself…”

“Not really - not helping your case at all, Doughnut.”

“But he was good, and kind, and he  always meant well.  It was like traveling with a flamboyant uncle, or the silliest, kindest sort of dad.”

Ace nodded, looked ready to stride right in and engage the Doctor in fisticuffs.

“That tears it.  I’m taking him down.”

“Ace…”

“Mel, I thought the Doctor was like a dad too.  But he’s not.  He’s - he just uses people.  He doesn’t love us, doesn’t care about us.  We’re insects to him.  Lower than that; we’re bacteria.”

The Doctor, finished with his hammering, seemed to have heard them, for he straightened up a bit and looked all ‘round.  Ace jerked Mel back into the alcove, one hand over her mouth, and neither of them dared to breathe for a long time.  Then they heard him go back to his humming, and Mel pulled away from Ace’s grip to peer out at the Doctor again.

He had pulled some small device from his kit and was running it carefully along the seam where the freshly place board met the base.  There was a faint glow, and a whiff of a scorching smell.  Ace cursed quietly, and Mel turned back to her.

“What now?”

“You smell that, Doughnut?  He’s using an ion bonder.  I went and left the cutter at the bike the one time I could really use it.”

“Maybe that’s a sign,” Mel said.  She didn’t really believe in fate and things, but this was as good a time as any to start.

“Mel, we’ve gotta get those books.  If the Doctor has them…”

“But he doesn’t, remember?  Not the one you’re so afraid of, anyway.”

“I’m not afraid of the Doctor.  Just of what he can do.”

“Well, anyway, he only had them for a moment.  Then he passed them on to his other self and Romana.  So your Doctor doesn’t have the books.”

“But - he could - I mean, he’s probably going to.  Damn it.  You’re right.”

“Have I ever been wrong?”

Ace looked embarrassed.

“Not that I remember.”

“Right.  And if I  had been wrong, then  I would remember it.  So, can we just be on our way now?  There’s bound to be some other contract we can pick up or something.”

They waited for the Doctor to leave, and then they made haste to get out of the hotel and back to the bike.  Ace was silent the whole time, no doubt grousing over being once again proven wrong.

“Sometimes, Doughnut, I regret blasting that cell open and hauling you out.”

“And sometimes, Ace, I regret letting you haul me out.  But we always make it up, don’t we?”

“Yeah.  Yeah, we kind of do.”


	8. Not Exactly Glory Days

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> You know how it is when you're wandering through time and space: one minute you're drinking enough booze to keep you drunk for two days, the next your coming down with some wild space-flu that's going to nearly kill your business partner.

They had gone to a strange little tavern the night before and had drunk quite a bit.  Not too much, but enough to feel that they had properly celebrated the successful liberation and return of the crown jewels of Andrus.

Now, in the dark hours just before dawn, they were dozing their way into what would no doubt be hangovers worthy of some sort of permanent commemoration.

Mel had consumed less of the Andrun ale than Ace had, and none of the Mirakese fire-whiskey, but she still woke suddenly in the half-dark with a bit of a headache.  She felt none too keen on getting out of bed.  She managed it anyway, scrambled to the odd little water-closet to use the facilities and down a small glass of water from the tap, then hurried back to bed.

Ace had sprawled out in her absence and was hugging Mel’s pillow tightly.

“You left,” she muttered, one eye peering at Mel blearily.  She looked, somehow, less hungover than still flat drunk.

“Had to do things,” Mel replied, and managed to get Ace to scoot over a little so that there was once more room for both of them.

“You left and all there was was the warm spot you’d been in.  I like the warm, but I like you better.”

Mel smiled a little in spite of the throbbing in her brain, and scooted back down to curl up under the blankets.

“Why’s that?”

“’Cos you’re warm and soft and sweet, like a doughnut.  That’s why I call you Doughnut.  I like doughnuts.  Better than just an empty warm spot, anyhow.”

And then suddenly Ace had pulled her close to wrap her in a tight and amazingly comforting hug.  Mel felt Ace kiss the top of her head a few times.

“Don’t leave me again, okay?”

“I won’t leave,” Mel promised.

“Good.  Neither will I.”

And then Mel thought that Ace must have gone back to sleep, because her breath had gotten very deep and slow, and her grip had relaxed a bit.  But just as suddenly as she had embraced Mel, Ace sat up and switched on the little lamp beside the bed.  Once Mel got past the sensation of being stabbed in the retinas, she looked up, saw that Ace was staring down at her very seriously.

“I mean it.  I won’t leave you if I can ever help it,” Ace said.

Her voice was very quiet, soft, perhaps with a touch of fear in it.  Mel could only reach out to her, squeeze her hand gently.

"Ace, I know you won't abandon me.  I know you won't hurt me.  I trust you.  You're the best friend I've had in a long time."

That seemed enough reassurance, because Ace switched the lamp off again and lay back down, arms behind her head.  Mel curled up against her, felt one of Ace's arms come down behind her back in a sort of half-hug.

"G'night, Mel."

"Good night, Ace."

They didn’t get much more sleep before some animal decided to let out what might be either an anguished screech or a typical morning call.  Mel groaned and opened her eyes slowly, realising that Ace’s face was awfully close to her own.  At some point they had moved together, and now they were quite entangled; limbs entwined, Mel thought.  That was the way it was always phrased in those trashy romance novels her friends so loved in secondary school.

Her mind’s inexplicable choice to compare this moment to something out of a romance novel brought Mel to greater awareness, and she suddenly decided that it was time to move, to get away from Ace, and probably from the bed.  If Ace woke up to this level of cuddling - well, things might end up on fire.

An instant later, Ace was blinking heavily, smiling as if she had just found the largest store of explosives in the galaxy.

“Hi there, Doughnut.”

“Uh - good morning.”

Ace’s smile broadened slightly, and she moved closer, just enough to kiss the tip of Mel’s nose.  She still didn’t seem hungover, somehow, and Mel wondered if something in her body chemistry was completely alien at this point.  Suddenly, Ace looked very serious.

“Were we really drunk?”

“I believe we were, yes.”

“Okay.  I still am, though.  Not for long, probably, so you might wanna be up and about before I start to be sick or something.  We’ve got an hour.”

“Exactly an hour?”

Ace shrugged a little and kissed Mel’s nose again.

“Give or take.  If I go back to sleep now, I might actually doze through the worst of it.  Or we could talk.  But I should probably sleep.”

“That would seem like the best idea.”

“Yeah.  Stay with me for a bit, though?”

“If - that’s what you want.”

“It is,” Ace mumbled, already drifting back off.

Mel watched Ace sleep for quite a while.  There was some snoring, a hint of drool, and the occasional half-word which seemed to have no connection to the last.  Combined with the softness that overtook Ace’s expression, it all made her look very young and innocent.

A few times, Ace seemed to wake up, but she would only wince at the sunlight that was streaming through the window and then fall asleep again.  Once, she managed a few garbled words in what might have been some alien language, but mostly she slept on.

Around noon, she suddenly sat up again, looked wildly ‘round the room, and coughed hard.

“Mel?” she husked.

“Yes?”

“If you ever have kids, never let them drink.  Because it’s - really not good.”

“All right.  Noted.  Now, why don’t you lie back down…”

“I mean it.  Never,  ever , let them.  Even if they beg you, even if it’s legal for them to.  Don’t let them drink.”

“As I said, noted.  Rest, Ace.”

“They’ll regret it the rest of their lives, those kids.  They - it’ll never get any better.  They’ll drink and then - this happens.”

“You’re turning into a public information film, Ace.”

“Young people need to be educated!  Because alcohol is - bad stuff.  It’s wet, and everyone knows that liquid is dangerous.  And it’s flammable.”

Apparently satisfied that she had informed Mel of all the dangers present in a single drop of booze, Ace lay back down, sighing heavily.

“I just really fucking hate clowns,” she murmured, turning to bury her face in Mel’s hair.

 

* * *

It took Ace two full days to entirely sober up, and Mel made a mental note to never mix ale and fire-whiskey.  Even on the third day, Ace still seemed to be moving slowly, her eyes constantly squinted against the intrusion of any light.  By evening, she had taken to wearing her welding goggles everywhere.

“I’m going to be functionally blind after this,” she said once.  “I know it.  You’ll have to lead me around everywhere.  Or better, lash me to the bike and launch me into a collapsing star.”

“You’ll be fine,” Mel sighed, patting Ace’s hand.

“I blame Benny for all of this.  All of it.  She was with us the first time I went to Mirak.  She got me into the fire-whiskey.  Now she’s off traipsing through the cosmos, recovering fabulous artifacts, and I’m here, going blind because light exists.”

Ace shuddered and rested her head on the table.

“Light.  Fucking Light.  Now he was a pile of - pile of rubbish.  Poor Gwendoline.”

“Are you still drunk?” Mel asked.

“No.  No, just - really tired.  Not feeling so well, actually.  Not like drunk.  Actually sick, maybe.  And I never get sick.  Mostly never.”

“We should get back to the hotel…”

“You go, Doughnut.  I’ll find my way back later.  Alone.  In the dark.”

Ace shuddered again, and Mel moved around to grab her under the arms and haul her to her feet.

“Come on.  I’m putting you to bed right now.”

“Okay.  But you can’t stay with me, because you’ll get sick too.  Unless I actually am still drunk.  You can’t catch drunk, I think.”

“You’d be correct on that.”

 

* * *

Ace did indeed prove to be ill.  It was like a nasty sort of flu, but she had managed to fight it off after a week of rest and some help from the local healer.

By the time Mel caught whatever it was, the virus had mutated.  The healer could not help; he was as dead as most of his patients.  People who had gotten the lighter form of the virus before started to catch the new strain.  Ace counted herself lucky that it skipped her on the second go 'round.

But she was too worried about Mel to really care.

"Please, you've gotta eat something," she coaxed, trying to at least get Mel to sit up and drink a little soup.

Mel simply lay very still, eyes closed, breath coming and going in sharp, barking rasps.  Her skin, usually pale anyway, was now almost translucent looking, or at least it seemed so to Ace.  There was a bluish tinge around her lips, and now and then she seemed to try to cough, but could only groan in pain.

"Come on, Doughnut," Ace whispered, carefully rolling Mel onto her side and patting her back a bit roughly. "Gotta get that gunk out of your lungs so you can breathe.  Come on, I know it hurts, but you gotta cough."

Mel made a weak huffing sound, then whimpered.

Ace would, at that moment, have given anything for some sort of access to a medbay.  She had rudimentary first aid training, and with a properly working set-up of scanners and manipulators, she knew she could fix this situation.

"Come on, Mel.  Come on.  Just gotta get this stuff out of you."

Mel seemed to choke, then coughed roughly.  Two more coughs, a bit of a struggle, and a nasty splash of phlegm and fluid poured from her mouth onto the bedsheets.

"That's it," Ace whispered, keeping Mel's hair well back from the mess.  "Just get it all out."

Mel was gasping and coughing, fighting for life it seemed, and Ace held onto her, got her leaning off the edge of the bed so that the mess went into the little rubbish bin nearby.  Eventually the coughs stopped being productive, but Mel began to vomit; nothing but stomach juices, but still awful.

When all was said and done, Ace stood and scooped Mel up - she was never heavy, not really, and now she seemed to weigh almost nothing - and carried her into the little bathroom.

"I'm gonna get you cleaned up, okay?"

Mel's breathing was still shaky and disturbingly raspy, but she nodded, resting her head against Ace's shoulder.

Ace sat on the edge of the tub to run the water, warm but not too warm, and stripped Mel of the old worn-out nightgown she had been wearing.  The bathing itself was simple; Mel had no strength, so she let Ace do the work.  After it was finished, Ace helped Mel out, dried her and got her into clean clothes, then helped her to the little sofa in their room.

"You lie down here.  I'm gonna change the bed.  Just relax for a bit, much as you can."

Changing the sheets was short work; Ace threw the soiled ones into the rubbish bin and stepped out into the hall long enough to dump the contents of the receptacle down a chute to the building's incinerator.  Then she went back, washed her hands, and grabbed clean sheets from the stack she had liberated from a supply closet when the hotel staff started to die off.

She was surprised, when she stepped back out of the bathroom, to see Mel standing.  The red head looked still weak, was shivering in fact.

"Mel.  Sit down, all right?  Don't want you getting hurt."

"My side..."

"Hurts, yeah?  Probably pulled something from all the coughing.”

Ace made the bed up as quickly as she could and helped Mel back to it.

"Just rest, okay?  I'm gonna take care of you."


	9. Stop-Off

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A delay in their travels brings Ace and Mel face-to-face with another former companion of the Doctor, and Ace gains a great honour in a rather unexpected way.

“So you’re from Earth?  Both of you?”

Ace and Mel nodded, and the woman before them smiled.

“Oh wow, this is great!  It has been  so long since I met another Earthling.  When are you from?”

“Late 20th century,” Ace grunted, going back to tearing at the joint of meat she had been offered.

“Me too!  What about you, Mel?”

“Oh, Ace and I are contemporaries, sort of, your Majes…”

“Don’t bother with that,” their hostess said, waving a hand dismissively.  “Just call me Peri.”

While Ace made rather a mess, slopping whatever sort of sauce had come with her meat everywhere, Mel picked carefully at a strange purple-and-grey fruit and kept up some sort of conversation with Peri.

“So if you’re both from Earth in the 1980s,” the queen asked eventually, “how are you here and now?”

“Time travel,” Ace slobbered.  She was beginning to act a bit drunk as well as sloppy, and yet there had been no liquor offered to them.

“Yes,” Mel provided.  “We both traveled with this Time Lord…”

“The Doctor?” Peri asked.

“Yes, that’s him.”

“That - he’s how  I got here.”

“Sm-small infinity,” Ace managed, pushing her trencher away and then stretching out full length on the bench.  Her feet ended up in Mel’s lap.

“Ace!  Ace, don’t be rude!”

“It’s all right,” Peri said with a laugh.  “They put some odd things in the food for strangers sometimes.  My husband’s idea of a hospitable joke.  She’ll be fine by morning.”

“Still and all, I should get her to bed.”

Mel stood and went to help Ace sit up.  Peri rushed around to help.

“She looks like she’s a two person job when she’s tired.”

“Oh, Peri, she’s a two person job when she’s awake.”

As she slipped one of Ace’s arms around her neck, Mel nodded to the slight swell of Peri’s abdomen.

“Should you help?  In your condition, I mean.”

“Oh, we’re fine.    The kid and I are healthy as horses.  Well, as a horse and an unborn foal, anyway.  Now come on, I’ll show you to the guest quarters.”

The citadel of Yrcanos was rather sprawling, considering that the warrior-king himself spent little enough time there.  Peri had mentioned during dinner that she frequently felt lonely, even with her efforts to improve conditions for the people she now helped to rule.

“Of course he’d be away now,” she said as they negotiated a twisting, winding corridor, “just when something interesting happens.”

“I take it lost freighters don’t make emergency landings on Krontep very often?”

“Not very, no.  We also rarely have humans here besides myself, and never other Earthlings.  Oh, Yrcanos and his people are human-like, but - well, it’s not the same.”

“It must be difficult for you,” Mel said, shoving open the door of the room that she and Ace had been offered.

“Can be.  Still, I make the most of it.”

They managed to get Ace onto the bed, and Mel went to the little tap-and-basin in the corner to dampen a towel.  If whatever had affected Ace was in the sauce from her dinner, it might be best to get her cleaned up.

The cold water seemed to rouse Ace and she sat up suddenly, swatting at the towel and glancing at Mel and Peri in turn.  Lying back against the pillows, she offered up a wicked grin.

“Is it that kind of party?  Because I’m up for anything with either of you.”

Mel gasped, but Peri scoffed and rolled her eyes.

“Damn.  They’ve dosed her with Kiposin.”

“What’s that?”

“Low grade sedative that metabolises into - well, it’s sort of like an aphrodisiac.  Probably they assumed you two are a couple and - are you?”

“No!  Ace and I…”

“Oh, come on, Doughnut,” Ace cut in, “we might as well be.  We share beds all the time.”

“That’s because we have almost no credits, usually,” Mel rushed, moving quickly back to the corner.

“As for you, Peri,” Ace growled, “you look just the sort to be up for a bit of fun.”

Mel glanced back in time to see Ace grab Peri’s hand and pull her down onto the bed.  Peri was, for her part, offering no resistance.  When Ace kissed her, she clearly kissed back.

“Ace!  You’ll get us thrown into the dungeon at best!” Mel hissed, but no one was listening.  With a sigh, she dropped the towel into the basin and started to leave the room.  She was halfway into the corridor when she heard Ace call her back.

“Don’t go, Mel.  Please.  You can have fun too.”

“Not my sort of fun, thanks anyway.”

She thought she’d make her way back to the freighter.  They had been staying in the crew quarters while they accompanied a small cargo as part of a job, and it was at least passably comfortable.  As she went, she heard sudden pounding footsteps behind her.

“Mel, wait.  Please!”

“Ace, you’re not yourself right now.  You should probably go and sleep this off and…”

A strong hand grabbed Mel’s arm and turned her around.  Moonlight through the window illuminated Ace, made her face look ghostly, her eyes vaguely catlike.

“It’s you I want back there.  The other one is nice, but…”

“Ace, it’s the drug.  They put something in your food…”

“Yeah, well, maybe I’m glad.  Been penning myself up lately, holding everything back.  Time to let things out.  Come on; you could do with some loosening up.”

Mel found that, on some level, she was tempted.  She was tempted to follow Ace back to their room and see just what might happen.  Ace’s hand was on her shoulder, squeezing tightly, almost too tightly.

“Ace - Ace, you’re hurting me.”

The hand released, and Mel turned and ran, ran from the citadel, ran from the reality in which Ace would never want her without somehow being altered.

 

* * *

Peri was waiting on the bed when Ace returned, and she smiled in welcome.

“Sure your husband won’t mind?” Ace asked.

“Not at all.  He never minds that I keep myself warm while he’s away.  Especially when there’s no danger to his bloodline.”

Ace looked down, feeling the change come over her.  She knew she had slipped a bit in the corridor with Mel; she’d felt the buzzing in her brain.  In a moment, any worry was gone, replaced only with the feverish ache, the desire that had been overtaking her since she woke in the bed.

She went to Peri, climbed carefully on top of her.  So many good smells.  Woman smell, need and desire and something sweet too.  There was kit smell underneath, and the beast in Ace wondered why this one would want to mate when there were already kits on the way.  Still, it would feel good to be with this person, to touch and play, to rut maybe.  Ace growled.

“Oh, you’re quite the charmer,” Peri laughed, and soon they were moving together, riding against each other, and Peri’s laughter became a needy whimper.

The two parts of Ace’s mind were warring.  The beast part, the Cheetah nature, wanted sex and nothing more in a situation like this.  That part had been mated to Karra, really, and without her it didn’t want to settle on any other single mate.  The part that was just Ace wanted sex quite often, but sometimes wanted something to go along with it.  Ace wanted a friend, a lover, a companion.  She had grown up a lot, and she wasn’t ready to settle down, but she was ready for a regular thing, something steady.  The chances she’d known for that in the past had all got ruined, so she kept looking.

Peri seemed nice, pliant, willing as far as sex.  There was the matter of getting to know each other, but then, Ace was good at the whole friendship thing.  Of course, Peri seemed perfectly content to stay here, and Ace wanted to move on.  Now Mel, she liked to travel as much as Ace did.  Plus, by now, Ace knew her, got along with her.  She would be the sort of mate that could calm both parts of Ace’s mind.

Beneath Ace, Peri was coming, hard and loud.  Ace, distracted as she was by her own wandering thoughts, let her lust play out to a small climax of her own.  They rested, then went again three more times throughout the night before Ace dozed off.

 

* * *

When Ace woke, Peri was gone.  Ace couldn’t remember much of what they’d done, but judging from the smell of the room and the rumpled state of the bedclothes, she thought it had been good.  She crawled out of bed and got dressed.  Of the things she  did remember from the previous night, Mel apparently being very upset with her was one.

“Here’s hoping Doughnut didn’t go storming off and get herself in trouble,” Ace thought, making her way out of the citadel to the place where the freighter was being prepared.

She found Mel in one of the cargo bays, sitting on a crate, looking pale and shaky.

“Hey, Mel…”

The redhead shied from Ace’s hand on her shoulder, and Ace frowned.

“You all right, Doughnut?”

“I’m fine.  I was helping with the repairs and - well, you know, I’m still weak after the bout with that virus…”

“You shouldn’t strain yourself, Mel.  You could get sick again.”

Ace sat down on the crate and was unable to avoid noticing that Mel scooted away from her a bit.

“Hey, listen, about last night…”

“Are you feeling better?  Whatever was in the food really seemed to pack a wallop.”

“Yeah, thanks, I’m okay.  But Mel - did I make you angry?”

“Well, you weren’t quite yourself.  That’s all.”

“Oh.  Did I - I mean, I didn’t hurt you, did I?”

“Not really.”

“That’s not a no, is it?”

“Well, you grabbed my shoulder quite hard once, to get my attention, but it’s all right now.  How’s Peri?”

“She’s - fine, I guess.  I don’t remember much of last night.  Did I do something dumb?”

Mel shrugged.

“‘Cos if I did something…”

“The captain thinks the repairs are nearly complete.” Mel said.  “We can make the delivery nearly on time, get our reward, and head back to Asternon for the bike.”

Then she stood and wandered away, leaving Ace to ponder the trouble of dealing with other people.

 

* * *

“I think I’ve almost got this patched, Captain.  Ace, could you hand me my tap-pad, please?  With the voltage key?”

Ace was digging around through Mel’s supplies when a roar echoed through the ship.  Most of the crew scattered, and Mel abruptly scooted out from under the console she was working on, a look of fear spreading across her face.

“What on Earth…”

“We’re not on Earth, remember?” Ace muttered, drawing her gun and training it on the bridge entrance.

A man, rather rotund and with impressive facial hair, burst onto the scene.  He roared again and stomped over to Ace.  Mel had stood by now, but Ace held her back with a free hand.

“YOU!” the intruder shouted.  “YOU ARE ACE?”

“That’s me.  Who wants to know?”

Now the man laughed, a genuinely booming sound, and pulled something from a pouch at his waist.

“HOW IS IT THAT YOU ENJOY THE HOSPITALITY OF MY HOME, AND YET YOU DO NOT KNOW ME?  I AM YRCANOS, RULER OF A THOUSAND WORLDS.”

“I thought Peri said he ruled a dozen,” Mel whispered, and Yrcanos glared at her in a surprisingly non-threatening way.

“Uh.  So.  You’re - married to Peri?” Ace asked, her voice suddenly less commanding than was usual of late.

“MY WIFE HAS TOLD ME OF HOW YOU DEFENDED HER AGAINST THE DREADED DOLDRUMS!”

Mel snorted out a laugh, then hissed in pain when Ace smacked her on the arm.

“Guess you could say I - relieved the situation.”

Yrcanos laughed again, the heavy scent of something like garlic on his breath making Ace recoil.  Then he jabbed something quickly into the front of Ace’s jacket.

“Ow!”

“I AWARD YOU A GENERALSHIP IN MY ARMY!  I WOULD HAVE YOU STAY AND DEFEND MY WORLD WHILE I AM GONE!”

Glancing down, Ace was torn between admiring the strangely iridescent badge that had been pinned to her shirt or punching Yrcanos for drawing blood.  She settled, instead, for backing away slowly.

“That’s not gonna work, you see.  I’ve -  we , that’s Mel and I, have got a lot of work to do.  Important things for people and stuff…”

“Oh, Ace, I’m sure we could take a little time off,” Mel began, but she quickly clammed up when Ace shot her a deadly glare.

“THEN YOU WILL NOT STAY?”

“No.  I’m - really very sorry.  Sir.  Your Majesty.”

Yrcanos, when disappointed, looked like a sad child.  A sad child with very impressive facial hair, but still a sad child.  Ace felt almost sorry for letting him down.

Almost.

 

* * *

They made their delivery on time and were well on their way back to Asternon.  Ace spent most of her time during the passage in the crew quarters avoiding Mel.  The redhead had developed a nasty habit of drawing herself to full attention, complete with heel-click and salute, whenever she saw Ace.

“I swear, Doughnut…”

“What was that, General McShane?”

“If you don’t cut it out, I’ll take you to Earth and strand you in Hull.  You know I’ll do it.”

“That’s not a very great threat, General.”

“Actually,” Ace pointed out, burying her face in a copy of some odd little book she always hauled around, “it’s Grand-General.  And I can make anything a great threat if you piss me off enough.”

“Oh, Ace, I’m only teasing.”

“Yeah, well, leave the teasing to me, will ya?”

She flashed a rather wolfish grin at Mel and then strode out to see how far they were from their destination.


	10. Pressing On

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ace has a little surprise for Mel before they head off on a new mission.

"What is it?"

"I told you, it's a surprise.  Come on."

Mel let Ace lead her along, laughing a little because she felt like a child on Christmas morning.  Of course, with Ace, a surprise might not always turn out to be something objectively good.

"Almost there.  Just a bit more."

There was the distinctive hissing groan of a large hydraulic door opening, and they stepped beyond into a place where their footsteps echoed sharply.

"Okay," Ace said, and moved around behind Mel to whip off the blindfold.  
"Have a look."

Mel opened her eyes slowly, not certain what she would see or how she was expected to react.  She saw what she saw, and she was totally at a loss for a physical or verbal reaction.

"Ya like it?" Ace asked.

"It - Ace, this - how..."

"Traded a few things, spent a little of my personal credit pool, made a couple of promises.  Now, this beauty's ours."

"A ship?  A whole ship just for us?"

"Well yeah.  And it's not a very big ship, is it?  Just an old re-fitted vortex jumper.  Still, it's in good shape."

Ace slipped her arm across Mel's shoulders.

"Last owner only used it to fly to Canis Major on Dog Days," she joked, then stepped away and gestured for Mel to follow.  
"Come on!  I'll show ya 'round."

They walked up a sort of gangway into what Mel figured was a small cargo area.

"See?  Got a place for the bike and everything," Ace said, pointing to where their previous mode of transportation was secured to a bulkhead.

"Well, it seems nice..."

"You've not seen the best bits yet."

There was an airlock, very cramped but probably not so bad in use.

"Helps in case there's an accident; the hull back here is the thinnest bit, easiest to breach," Ace explained.

They moved on through a blast door which opened on a small maintainence corridor.

"Is everything repaired via these accesses?" Mel asked, not certain she would like working back here.

"Mostly the engines and that stuff.  The computer stuff is further forward."

They passed through another blast door and into the main portion of the ship.

"Medbay, storage, hazmat lock-up access," Ace went on, "head, showers, galley, sleep pod, sleep pod, sleep pod."

"I hate sleep pods," Mel groaned.

"Don't worry.  Those aren't for you.  Come on, you'll like the next bit."

The control bridge, Mel decided, was going to be her favourite place as long as they were aboard this ship.  The controls were fairly simple looking, and everything had the appearance of sleek comfort.  There were multiple access ports for controlling, reprogramming, and working on the ship's computers, and there was a very interesting looking central station that drew her right away.

"What's here?"

"That, Doughnut, is the Artificial Intelligence teachpod.  The ship has limited A.I. now..."

"But I can use this to expand it!" Mel said excitedly.  She had heard about teachpods, but she had never actually got the chance to access one.  She would have gone straight to work, but Ace grabbed her gently by the shoulders.

"Just wait a tick, okay?  One more big thing to show you."

Ace led her back down the corridor they had traversed before, pausing to press a small series of switches which opened a panel which looked no different from the rest of the sheathings and bulkheads on the ship.  Ace stepped aside and let Mel enter the area beyond first.

It was dark, but felt spacious enough.  Ace was working with more switches and buttons, and soon dim lights were glowing here and there.

"Nightchamber," Ace said, whispering for some reason.  
"You can sleep in here, or just come in and catch a little rest for a bit."

"Oh, Ace, it's wonderful," Mel breathed, and she meant it.  She changed her mind about the bridge being her favourite spot.  This was the only part of the ship that looked not quite so utilitarian.  It seemed far, far more like a comfortable bedroom in a house than a sleeping area on a ship.

"Go and try the bed."

The low bed looked like a small boat.  Mel sat on the edge.

"It's so soft."

"Yeah.  Changes its own sheets too, once you're up and about.  Has a heating and cooling unit so it's always just the way you want.  And lie down; I'll show you the really, really best bit."

Lying back, Mel stretched slightly.  The lights dimmed again down to almost full darkness, and in that darkness the room got much bigger and, in a way, frightening, like a deep cavern.

"Ace?"

"Wait, Mel."

She could hear Ace once again pressing switches, heard a small, distant series of beeps, and suddenly it seemed that Mel was lying not on a bed inside a jump-ship, but on a blanket out under the stars.  She even thought she heard crickets.

"Oh, Ace..."

"Good, yeah?  You can recreate any night sky from any time and place, if you can get the proper coordinate info, and there's a sub-system that makes those night sounds and everything."

Mel sat up and peered through the dark at Ace.

"Why?"

"Why what?"

"Why did you do this?  Why a ship?  I mean, I love it and it's so much more comfortable, but - it had to have run you very low on credits."

Ace shrugged and moved to sit on the edge of the bed.

"Did it for you.  I know you're still not totally back from that virus, that you still get so tired and everything.  I thought this'd be safer than the bike, and maybe you'd like a nice comfortable bed to sleep in all the time instead of being so catch-as-catch-can."

"Ace McShane, you're trying to take care of me, aren't you?"

Ace grinned.

"That's what friends do, right?"

* * *

Ace had just assumed that she would take one of the sleep pods and leave the nightchamber entirely for Mel.  She was quickly disabused of that notion during their first night aboard the ship.

They were adrift in the time vortex, aiming for a particular part of space in the 54th century where they would pick up a small cargo.  The ship was running on night-systems, everything was in proper order, and hopefully there would be no unexpected trouble.  Ace made final checks, then went to pop into one of the sleep pods.

She had just begun to drift off, dreaming of the nice little share of credits she would get from their run, when the pod hissed open without any warning.  She rolled over and found Mel looking at her.

"Problem?"

"Bit of one, yes."

"Hull breach?"

"No."

"Oh, good.  Go back to sleep then, Doughnut."

Ace started to pull down the podhatch, but Mel stopped her.

"I can't sleep."

Rolling her eyes, Ace raised up on one elbow.

"Suddenly you've got your energy back?  Great.  Go work in the teachpod then."

"No.  I mean I can't sleep without you."

Ace felt Mel's hand on her arm and almost shied away from the touch.  She decided, instead, to just enjoy it.

"Please don't stay out here," Mel started.  
"I've got so used to sharing space with you..."

"Admit it, Doughnut," Ace said, slipping from the pod and grabbing her blanket.  
"You just can't resist me."

Mel blushed then, and Ace felt a little badly about what she had said.  She patted Mel's shoulder gently.

"C'mon.  Let's go and get some sleep."

* * *

 "They said they were sending us off to deliver their greatest treasure!"

"Well, I suppose he is their greatest treasure," Mel said.  
"I mean, the heir to an interstellar empire..."

"This is a kid.  A kid who, by the way, is getting heavier by the minute."

"Well, I told you not to feed him all those sweets..."

"My whole life, it's, 'Oh, don't give kids too much sugar, it hypes 'em up!  Don't let 'em raid the sweet-shop, they'll never go to sleep.'  I thought the stuff would make him, ya know, energetic."

"Sugar rushes lead to sugar crashes," Mel went on.  
"You ought to be more careful; for all we know, he's diabetic or something like that."

They were slogging on through the swamps of Ketullus Minor, Ace with a blaster in one hand and the young heir to the Jubulan Star Empire strapped to her back, Mel with another blaster and the half-payment they had received, which was not in the credits promised, but in the form of a rather large Haran emerald stuffed into an old burlap sack.

"That emerald is gonna be hell to back-convert or hock," Ace said.

"Yes, well, it's very nice."

"We're not keeping it.  We need the credits."

"I know.  I know."

They made it to the ship with little trouble (really very little indeed, except for two swamp-bears and the fright they had when they stumbled upon what turned out to be an empty Dalek casing) and put the boy to sleep in one of the pods while they prepared for take-off.

The jump to space went well, but Ace was having a hell of a time getting the ship to do much more than drift at slightly less than a snail's pace.  She checked the fuel levels, ran a system diagnostic, and made certain that the ion-scoop was functioning properly.  Then she whacked the farthest starboard console three times with the palm of her hand and everything settled into proper working order.

"Swear if there's a power-shift clog again..." she muttered, stepping out of the bridge and into the main corridor.

The sleep pod their little charge had been in was open, and the boy was nowhere to be found.

Mel, however, was easily found.  She was in the galley, apparently trying to get something equivalent to a peanut butter sandwich from the food machine.  At least Ace thought J-6-R was the code for a peanut butter sandwich.  She wondered briefly what she had been having for midnight snacks if not.

"Hey, Doughnut, I think we've got..."

"I just moved him into the nightchamber.  Thought he'd be a bit more cozy there."

"You know, we don't have to roll out the red carpet just because he's royalty."

"No.  I know that.  But we really ought to be nice to him.  He's just a little boy, not much more than a baby.  Growing up isn't easy, even for royalty I'll bet.  He deserves a little bit of kindness.  And not just you stuffing him with candy."

"Hey, so I was operating under a mistaken notion.  A common misconception, really."

"Yes, well, I hope you've learnt your lesson.  If I ever catch you overloading our children with Jammie Dodgers and candy floss and fizzy drinks and..."

"Hey, there were no Jammie Dodgers involved.  They were the local equivalent.  And besides, we made the pick-up at a carnival; junk food and carnivals go together."

Ace turned and started to leave, but suddenly spun back.

"Wait a tick.  Our children?"

"Slip of the tongue," Mel said, settling down with her maybe-peanut-butter-flavoured food bar and some manual on the ship's systems.

It may indeed have been a slip of the tongue, but Ace could see that Mel was blushing while concentrating very hard on a manual that she had probably already read at least twice and committed to memory.  Ace grinned, leaning against the bulkhead.

"Hey, Mel?"

"Yeah?"

"If I was gonna have kids, I can think of way worse people than you to be their other parent."


	11. Meanings

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> There's been a definite shift in Ace and Mel's relationship. Will they acknowledge the facts before it's too late?

"Finally sold off and converted the last bits of that emerald," Ace yawned, collapsing on the bed and tossing a full credit-stick to Mel.

"Fantastic!  It was a good idea, piecing it up instead of going for the lump sum."

"Well, that way we could each get rid of individual sections and take our share of the loot faster.  I'm just glad to have a full account again.  I was going on a neg-balance there for a bit."

"I'll never understand how you run through credits like you do.  It's not like you're a fiend for shopping.  Not exactly popping off to Marks and Spencers for bread and tea every five minutes."

"Yeah, but there's repairs to the bike and now repairs to the ship.  Lots of little expenses."

Mel had slipped the credit-stick into a storage compartment under the bed, and now she flopped down beside Ace.

"Why don't we combine our accounts?" she said as the nightchamber began to darken to full sleep mode.

"I dunno.  Could be messy.  I mean, we probably won't travel together forever, and..."

"Who says we won't?"

And suddenly Ace felt Mel's hand against her own, felt soft, nimble fingers lace through with her own rough, strong ones.

"Anyway," Mel went on, "if we combined accounts, we wouldn't have to worry about splitting payouts anymore, or if one of us needs something, we could just get it.  We can keep a regular log right in the ship's computer and link it to the account so that each of us can always know how much we have."

"I think as long as I've got you, I've got everything I'll ever need," Ace said.

The stars from the nightchamber's projection system were configured to a late winter's night somewhere in northern Russia in the middle of 19th century.  They were, Ace thought as she pulled her hand away and rolled onto her side to look at Mel, rather romantic stars.

Ace leant down and kissed Mel tremblingly, hopefully, and was amazed and relieved when the kiss was accepted and returned in full measure.

* * *

They did not talk about the kiss, much.  Each knew that the other had wanted it, had simply been biding time to feel the right moment.  The moment had come to them, been seized, and had passed as it should.  Things changed, but only minimally.  There were, perhaps, more tender moments between them, more soft touches that were no longer passed off as accidental, more sweet words meant to soothe and comfort rather than to tease or joke.

Still and all, they were the same as they had been.  Ace perhaps no longer worked so much to hide her feelings, at least around Mel, and Mel made every effort to prove that she was not a burden to Ace, but they were themselves and each other as they had been since what seemed like forever.

The one thing that definitely would not change, at least not easily, was their complete and utter inability to state what their feelings for each other were.

Ace wanted to believe that her own feelings for Mel were simply lust as a result of long deprivation of intimate contact, with a tiny, thin crust of love buried underneath.  As for Mel's feelings, she was convinced that they were a mixture of pity and concern.

Mel wanted to believe that her own feelings for Ace were love and concern and compassion and just a hint of pure lust.  She was fairly certain that Ace's feelings were also of love, but that it was a very confused and possibly frightened love that Ace would gladly sweep under the nearest carpet.

Of course, neither of them was dead-on about her own feelings, let alone those of her companion.  And so they went on, trying to act as if things between them could remain blissfully the same.

* * *

They neither of them believed in fortune tellers and soothsayers and all of that.  Mel, even with all that she had seen and experienced, always held to logic and reason.  Ace considered fate and destiny and prophecy just words that people used when they wanted no responsibility for their own actions.

But then they were on holiday, sort of.  Taking a little break between jobs, visiting Lipragopolis in the year 198,999 and looking for a way to entertain themselves.  One of those ways was to visit a pavillion in one city centre that had been set up for the Oracle of Korsh.

No one could see the Oracle directly, really.  The prophecies were translated through commpatches on the side of a large vat in which the Oracle's body lay.  Some said the Oracle was incredibly old, sustained by a bath of nutrient juices and stabilising gases.  Others said the Oracle was brand new, the latest in a long line of some strange single-entity race that had never been physically viewed by any other sentient being.

All Ace really knew was that the design of the vat made her shudder a bit, reminding her as it did of a Dalek casing.  Mel concurred and so they decided that, even if it was silly, they would keep well to the back of the pavilion.

There were pilgrims from at least four galaxies crowding in to see the Oracle, and it was free to just stand around and listen to the prophecies being broadcast, so they tried to blend in with the crowd, laughing at some of the things forecast to happen.  How the Jadorian Crisis would rekindle within a year (nothing was impossible, but it seemed unlikely after two centuries of peace and with all but 10 Jadorian's wiped out,) and the Face of Boe would fall pregnant within the decade (that would be good enough news, perhaps, since Boekind were becoming few and far between.)

An enormous gong sounded from beyond the Oracle's vat late in the day, and the Priestlings of Korsh began to circulate through the crowd, begging donations and informing the pilgrims of the schedule for the remainder of the Oracle's visit.

"None of the priestlings can be over 10 years old," Mel commented later as they were walking back to the ship.

"Yeah.  But they threw a spook into me, ya know?  And they, or whoever really runs the show, have a hell of a racket going.  I mean, for all we know, that vat's empty and those prophecies are some pre-recorded stuff.  Maybe even one of those kids stands behind a curtain and does it all."

"Sounds likely enough," Mel said.

Ace kicked at a stone.

"Suppose we could find out."

"What?"

"We could do a little reconnaissance."

A look of concern passed over Mel's face, but then she smiled.

"I suppose it could be interesting, at that," she agreed.

They were unsure if they would really follow through on their idea, but it came up in conversation now and again.  Two nights later they found themselves leaving the ship, well armed and ready to quell their mutual curiousity.

The pavillion seemed, when they got there, to be unguarded, but of course that was no indication of the actual state of things.  Ace crouched down, checked that her holdouts were well seated in her boots, and edged toward the back of the structure.  She could hear Mel just behind her, and when she stopped suddenly she reached back and let her hand brush the other woman's knee.

"One way in, three ways out," Ace whispered, indicating the small rear entrance to the pavillion.

The move from their current position would leave them exposed for a moment, no doubt.  There had to be some way around...

And then Mel was up and walking straight to the rear of the pavillion.  A guard seemed to materialise out of nowhere, blocking her path.  Personal perception filter, probably.  Ace straightened and broke into a short run to catch up.

"Melanie Bott,"  Mel said, even shaking the guard's hand.  
"Here to check some secondary life-support issues with the Oracle's vat.  This is my assistant, Gale."

Mel did not lie often, was not a good liar when she did, but those words slipped out with no effort.

"No one mentioned a technician dropping by," the guard said, and Ace saw him rest one palm on the grip of what she guessed could be a very nasty sonic blaster indeed.

"Oh, my good sir, I'm no technician!  I'm a licensed chronobiological restorator and programmer."

Mel pulled out a tap-pad, the one she normally used to break into local communications systems, and began to slide a finger up and down along the screen.

"I've a report here of a possible full fusion of the tank's main Prydon core, a severe drop in special matter levels, a small leakage of neutrino gases..."

She paused and raised one eyebrow slightly as she looked at the guard.

"Do you have any children?"

"No.  Not yet."

Mel gave him an almost sickly sweet smile.

"Well, if I don't get in there and take care of that leak, you won't even have to consider that a possibility ever again."

The guard blanched and stepped aside, thumbing a small switch to unlock the door and allow them passage.

"Thanks so much," Mel grinned, grabbing Ace by the arm and practically dragging her inside.

The door slammed shut behind them.

"Mel, I think you've spent too much time with me," Ace muttered as they approached the vat.

"Why's that?"

"You lied like a champ back there.  I thought you hated lying."

"Well, when you spend enough time with the Doctor, or even just wandering all of time and space and knowing that you'll have to make up a really amazing story if you ever get home, you start to learn that a little falsehood now and again can be useful.  But only now and again."

They were next to the vat now; it seemed to hum with some energy, as if a huge engine were working very hard within.  There was an access panel on one side, and Mel dug through her pockets until she located a small item that Ace first thought was an Allen key.  It slid into a spot on the side of the tap-pad, and Mel waved it briefly around the edge of the panel.

"No magnetic seal or shielding.  I'll bet this is the ticket for getting a look inside."

"Yeah, but can we figure it..."

There was a small popping sound as Mel opened the panel, and she was raptly studying a small lever surrounded by a ring of switches when Ace leaned closer and tapped her on the shoulder.

"I don't think we're gonna get this one to work, Doughnut."

"P'raps not.  But I have a hunch..."

Mel pressed several of the switches in a certain sequence, then flipped the lever up, then pressed a final switch.

"Knew it!" Mel squeaked as the vat seemed to rumble more violently and the top slid aside.

"Knew what?" Ace barked, covering her ears as the noise grew louder.

"It's - it takes the same combination as the bike!  Red, green, blue, then a pause for the lever, then gold!  There's no originality left in the universe!"

The rumbling had died down, but now there was a strange glow radiating from the top of the tank.  Ace frowned for a moment, then grinned.

"I think we're about to make history," she said, looking over and spotting the small set of rungs that allowed for climbing the vat.

"Won't be the first time," Mel giggled, following to stand just below where Ace was climbing.

Ace felt not one bit nervous, but was instead filled with a sense of overwhelming calm.  She had done goofier and more dangerous things than try to peek in on some previously unseen entity.  She had faced Daleks and Cybermen, had faced the demons of her own existence.

What she saw in the vat, or rather what she did not see, what she knew, erased her calm feelings and replaced them with a violent headache.  She felt as if spikes had been jammed into her brain, like her mind was being physically wrenched open in a billion places.  There were names, faces, incidents, realities flooding over and into her, things that never were and things that would be no matter who tried to stop them.

And then she was pitched forward, wheeling downward into what seemed, for all she could tell, to be the time vortex.  Unprotected travel in all of time and space; that would be just the thing to smash her into sub-molecular bits and stop this headache and the madness that had been encroaching on her for an eternity or so.

But there were strong hands pulling her back, warm hands, and she was falling into the arms of someone who lowered her carefully down and laid her out on the floor.  And there was a sound, a close-but-distant screeching moan, and a wind, and the smell of time being pushed here and there out of the way.

She could not see, could not really think.  There were fragments of thought, rather, but she could not seem to fit them together.  And now there was a second set of hands on her, bigger hands grabbing her by the shoulders, under the arms, and the hands that had pulled her down from the edge were around her ankles, and whoever had her was saying something, but she could not understand.

And then she was asleep, and that was good, but the strange knowledge kept flowing, so the sleep was anything but restful.

* * *

"The Oracle is a living extrusion of the time vortex, much like the Untempered Schism on Gallifrey," the Doctor said, pressing a button to activate the scanner that encircled Ace's head.  
"Except, of course, that the Oracle is literally alive.  It can report eventualities and possibilities in all of time and space, even in realities different from this one.  Every missed prophecy, every prediction that fails to come true, has simply failed to happen in this reality."  
  
"And Ace - she saw all of that?" Mel whispered.  
  
"Presumably.  Or much of it, anyway.  Rather, the information was pressed into her mind, and her brain won't have been able to absorb everything, won't have comprehended even half of what was offered."  
  
"Oh, Doctor, this is my fault."  
  
"Nonsense, Melanie.  You said that Ace was the one who wanted to see the Oracle in the first place."  
  
"Yes, but I went along, I got us in, and I opened the vat..."  
  
"Curiousity is natural, Mel.  You mustn't blame yourself.  That's the danger of the Oracle, or any other so-called 'mysterious' thing that can be easily explained.  There's always someone out to keep the mystery, and in the end someone else is bound to pay for the secret that shouldn't have been so secret after all."  
  
The Doctor walked over to Mel, ruffled her hair fondly, then moved back around to the opposite side of the examination pallet on which Ace lay.  Mel had a tight grip on Ace's left hand, and now the Doctor picked up the right hand and squeezed it gently.  
  
He wondered just how much Ace had seen, how much her mind had managed to take in before she was overloaded.  What had she come to know that should have remained hidden yet, or should never have been revealed at all?  Reaching past the scanner, he stroked a stray lock of hair back from Ace's forehead.  
  
She would be all right.  She was strong, always had been, and her travels both with him and alone had only made her stronger.  
  
She had to be all right.  She had been a new chance for him, a chance to be a father again, to teach a youngster and see them grow and succeed in the universe.  
  
He had been a father and grandfather, even a great-grandfather by now.  He had seen and loved all of those generations of his offspring, had watched them live and change.  He had his family of blood and biology, and he had his family of companions, those who traveled with him in the TARDIS and continued on in his mind and hearts long after they had departed his company.  
  
To lose any part of his family to something so needless and really awful would be more than he could bear right now.  Ace was grown; she was not the child he had known, but the young woman who had formed from the child.  Still, to him, some part of her was always that confused, angry, frightened child he had first known and cared for and wanted to protect while still making her face up to life and pain and reality.  
  
"My dear girl," he muttered, words he had not said to anyone in a very long while, and pressed her hand to his lips.  
  
Even Time Lords can cry, of course, and there were a few tears in the Doctor's eyes as he wondered if Ace would come out of this and if there was anything he could have done to stop it in the first place.


	12. Awaken

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It might be too late for Ace and Mel's relationship, because it might be too late for Ace...

_There are, in the children's stories of a billion worlds, recurring themes.  Knights and dragons, princesses locked in towers, wicked sorcerors, enchanted weapons, and true love._  
  
_On most worlds, the most real of these themes is love.  It does not happen that every being falls in love, but many are capable.  Who or what they fall in love with is the only real sticking point.  Some fall in love with an ideal, some with a goal.  Some fall in love with the fabric of a dream, and some with the reality of another living, breathing being._  
  
_There is a set of old tales fragmented among the stories of Earth.  Tales of a wise old man, a hermit who was never alone, a wanderer at home in all of reality.  The old man had many friends, many companions.  Teachers and warriors and children and magical beasts.  The old man has known liars and lovers and fools and philosophers._  
  
_There is, among the stories, that of a very bright and cheerful young woman who traveled with the man and then left him to help others, sending in her place a half-grown girl to be the old man's companion.  And one day, when the half-grown girl was a woman in full, a warrior traveling on her own, she found the old man's previous companion, saved her from imprisonment, and took her away on a magical steed.  They became companions and traveled together and had many adventures._  
  
_But then there was a curse which fell upon the warrior through her own actions, and she fell into a sleep which it seemed could not end.  Even the old man, who returned to help save her, had no magic that could wake her._  
  
_But then, one day, she did wake.  She opened her eyes and sat up and tried to look around, but found that she was blind due to the curse.  And she lay back on her bed and did not weep, but raged and seethed.  Her mind was wrecked and twisted by the curse, so that she barely knew who she even was._  
  
_And then her sweet companion came and leant over her, and whispered to her, and wept for her because she could not weep on her own.  And her companion's tears splashed on her face, even into her eyes, and they burnt away her blindness and madness and made her whole again._  
  
_It was true love, though most would not acknowledge that.  Love can help, and heal, and bring us back to reality._  
******  
"Ace, it's me.  It's Mel.  Ace, please, try and remember..."  
  
"You died.  A billion times.  A billion ways.  I wanted to save you and I couldn't.  I was everywhen and nowhere and I couldn't stop anything or save anyone."  
  
Ace was twisting and writhing on the bed, fighting, her eyes staring blankly at everything and nothing.  
  
"She's still seeing all of time," the Doctor whispered from the corner of the nightchamber.  
  
"Professor?  Professor, you killed me!  You let me die!"  
  
Mel struggled to keep 'hold of Ace's arms, to restrain without hurting.  A fist flew up and tagged her hard in the ribs; she winced but kept on.  
  
"Ace, you need to relax.  You're safe.  You're back; we're on our ship.  I'm here, and I'm real, and you're real, and you're going to be all right."  
  
"I WANT OUT!  HE'S PUT ME IN A BOX!  I DON'T LIKE THE DARK!  MUM PLEASE LET ME OUT!"  
  
Tears stung at the edges of Mel's eyes, and she wanted to fight them down, but they fell anyway.  They dropped onto Ace's chin and cheeks and into her eyes, and she sputtered and tried to twist away, and her eyes slammed shut and she let out a cry like she was being burnt alive.  Mel could only call out to her through the pain.  
  
"Ace, please come back to me!"  
  
Mel leant down as close as she dared and whispered into Ace's ear.  
  
"I love you.  I love you more than anyone."  
  
It seemed, for a moment, as if time froze.  Mel knew it did not really; she could hear the ship's air circulation system running, could see Ace's chest rise and fall and could feel her own breath rushing in and out of her lungs.  She pressed her ear to Ace's chest and could hear a strong heartbeat there beyond the ragged breathing sounds.  
  
And then she felt a warm hand stroking her hair.  
  
"Mel?  Are you really here?"  
  
Looking up, Mel smiled to see Ace's eyes locked on her, really seeing her.  
  
"Yes.  I'm here.  This is real."  
  
"You're all right?"  
  
"I'm just fine now.  And look, the Doctor's here too..."  
  
Mel stood and turned, but found that the Doctor had gone.  She hoped that he was at least still somewhere on the ship, that he had not run off so soon.  Then she felt Ace tugging at her hand, and she sat on the edge of the bed.  
  
"Ace..."  
  
"I was lost, Mel.  Lost in eternity.  Couldn't get back, didn't know where and when to go back to..."  
  
"I've got you now.  You're where you need to be.  I've got you safe."  
  
It seemed that Ace's strength was flagging, even as she apparently recovered, but she still managed to pull Mel down, to hold tight to her with no sign that she would ever let go.  
  
"You're real," she whispered.  
"You're real.  You're real."  
  
"So are you," Mel said, stroking Ace's hair and trying to offer what little comfort she could.  
  
"I'm not gonna lose you.  I've seen now how I could, and I won't.  I won't let any of that stuff happen."  
  
"All right.  Just rest now, Ace, please.  You've been so sick."  
  
They were forehead to forehead, but Ace pressed her face closer still to Mel's, pressed her lips to the soft lips of her companion, the one who had pulled her away from the edge of time and then had wept her back into this reality.  Ace felt stronger with that, much stronger than she had in a very long time, and she deepened the kiss.  She felt Mel relax and relax and relax against her.  It was good and soft and necessary and very, very real.

* * *

"Can I get up now?"  
  
"Ace, you're still not very well.  You're all shaky and confused and..."  
  
"And if I can just get back to regular activities, I'll be great.  Please?"  
  
Mel crooked an eyebrow and shook her head.  
  
"Don't suppose I can stop you."  
  
Ace leapt out of the bed, tripped over her own feet, and sat down hard.  Mel was at her side in an instant, trying to help her up, but Ace pulled away.  
  
"I've got it, Doughnut.  Just gotta learn to stand again, I guess."  
  
"Well, don't go rushing around so.  You'll do yourself an injury."  
  
Struggling up, Ace made her way out into the corridor and headed for the bridge.  A moment later, Mel had her by the arm and was turning her around.  
  
"Uh-uh.  You're not going near any of the important systems until you've had a full scan and something to eat.  You've been out for days, and after what happened..."  
  
"I'm fine, Mel.  Promise."  
  
Ace smiled, but she knew she was forcing the expression.  There was a part of her mind that was still screaming and backing away in terror from the things she had learnt at the Oracle.  
  
"Just, for my sake," Mel said, "will you at least eat something?  Just a little something?"  
  
"I could eat, I guess," Ace sighed, and let Mel lead her into the galley and sit her down at the little table.  
  
"Now, what would you like?"  
  
"I could murder a bacon sandwich."  
  
Mel made a face, and Ace chuckled.  
  
"It's not real bacon."  
  
"I know, but just the thought..."  
  
"Here," Ace said, standing.  
"I'm sure you've got tons of stuff to get done.  I'll get my food and you can go and, I dunno, program the A.I. to project dancing cats all over the bridge or something."  
  
Mel frowned.  
  
"That's not really my line."  
  
"Just go on, Doughnut.  If I need anything, I'll tell you."  
  
Once Mel was gone, Ace set the food machine to pumping out about six bacon sandwich flavoured food bars.  Truth be told, she was famished.  
  
Mel had told her that the Doctor had come around while she was unconscious, that he had helped to save her really.  Ace wished he had stayed for a bit.  She wanted to ask him about things she had seen at the Oracle, people and places and realities.  He might have answers to some of the questions that were bothering her.  
  
She wolfed down her food and then found that she was unaccountably tired again.  Probably she had been sleeping so much lately that she was looping right around into sleep drunkeness.  Still, a nap seemed like a good idea.  She thought perhaps she could crash out in one of the sleep pods, just for a bit, and then really get back to everything.  
  
Out in the corridor, she nearly collided with Mel, pulled her into a tight embrace so that they would neither of them fall.  
  
For a moment her vision flashed and she thought of some of the awful fates she had seen Mel suffer via the Oracle.  Deaths and injuries and illnesses.  Some of them Ace thought she could have prevented if given the chance.  
  
But there had been good images too.  Mel tending to flowers in a sunlit garden.  The both of them together on a beach, in a forest, scaling a mountain not because they had to but because they could.  And then there were the images that Ace wanted all to herself.  Images of Mel beside her or beneath her or on top of her in their bed, in a lot of beds, moaning and writhing in passion and calling out for Ace at the moment of release.  Visions of things changing.  Of new additions to their life.  
  
That last one was the best, Ace thought.  It was strange, because she had thought she would never really want a family.  But the thought of being with Mel, of making a family with her somehow, seemed almost to cancel out most of the bad things.  It meant there could be something more.  There could be a future.  
  
"You all right?" Mel asked, and Ace snapped back to the reality of the moment.  
  
"Yeah.  Just thinking."  
  
"About what?"  
  
Ace frowned a little.  
  
"When I was - when you were trying to wake me up, you said you love me."  
  
Mel seemed nervous suddenly, started to tremble in Ace's arms.  
  
"Well, I do.  That's how I feel."  
  
"Good.  I wondered if I imagined it.  Only see, I'm kinda upset."  
  
"Why?"  
  
"'Cos I never said it back."  
  
They had moved a bit, were leaning together against the bulkhead.  Ace whispered as softly as she knew how, stroking Mel's hair at the same time.  
  
"I love you, Mel.  I really do."


	13. Touch-and-Go

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sometimes, when you've been a companion of the Doctor, you feel compelled to continue dedicating your life to helping others. And sometimes the things you see in the course of that leave scars that almost nothing can heal.

Jarneoe in the year 2266 was no place for women, no matter how capable they were of defending themselves.  That was the year of the Cult of Urodahs, the followers of an allegedly mad artificial intelligence.  In the end, even the programmer fell to her own creation, having started it on its wild course.  
  
2266 was the year that every unprotected woman on Jarneoe was rounded up and murdered for "crimes against the heavens."  The only hope was to have a male relative uninfected by the madness and willing to vouch for you.  
  
Or, if you were Mel, you could have Ace pretending to be your husband.  Not that she passed very well, in Mel's opinion.  
  
"Remind me why we're even here again?"  
  
They had just walked past another square full of pyres on which live women had been burned.  Ace grimaced and then sighed.  
  
"You were the one who wanted to see this A.I. for yourself, Doughnut.  Although how you think you can reprogram it - I mean, I know you're supposed to be a hot-shot..."  
  
"I can do a lot of things, given the chance.  Anyhow, there's no possible way that an A.I. in this time and place could go mad.  It probably just has some bugs in the program."  
  
A guard was coming their way, so Ace quickly snaked her arm around Mel's shoulders.  
  
"This woman belong to you?" the guard asked.  
  
"Yes.  My wife.  Fully cleared and checked by Urodahs."  
  
Mel fought down the urge to giggle over Ace's "masculine" voice, choosing to instead simply cling to her.  
  
"You're sure she's been checked?" the guard asked.  
"We've had people trying to sneak through."  
  
"Rest assured, friend.  Why, the missus and I were just on the way to the Temple of Urodahs now."  
  
Ace brought a hand to her hip, swept back her long robe to reveal the coiled lash hooked to her belt.  The guard grinned at this.  
  
"Good ol' flaggelation, eh?"  
  
"The missus insists on it once a day, lest she get above herself," Ace nodded, and Mel fought back an urge to pinch her.  Some cover story was necessary, but Ace kept embellishing.  
  
"Right then.  Go along."  
  
They strolled on past the guard, quickening their pace only slightly once they were well beyond him, and only enough to look like they were in a hurry to get to the temple to "worship" the mad thing there.  
  
"You've got your stuff?"  
  
"Yeah, of course.  It's all ready.  Should be easy to tap in, from what I've found out."  
  
"Okay," Ace said, "just stay close to me until we've got an opening."  
  
The temple guards let them through easily once Ace displayed the lash again.  Mel simply kept her head down.  
  
The inside of the building smelt awful, acrid smoke and a hint of blood and rotting flesh somewhere buried underneath.  Mel kept looking at the floor, but eventually she saw enough dried blood that she just squeezed her eyes shut and let Ace lead her through the various chambers.  
  
There were sounds of chanting in a dozen strange languages, and alongside those the sounds of terror.  People screaming.  Whips cracking, sometimes sharply on air, sometimes heavily on flesh.  
  
And there was the sound of children, very small children, crying in fear.  
  
"Don't look, Doughnut.  Please don't look."  
  
Of course, that made Mel dare to look, and she saw a tiny child ripped from a parent's arms and hurled against a wall.  Nearby, a girl who had to be under five years old was being lowered by degrees, feet first, into a tub of some boiling liquid.  A team of small boys were being lashed while they scrambled at some busywork, like a workhouse scene out of a production of Oliver Twist.  
  
Mel bit back a scream, fought her urge to rip the lash from Ace's belt and wield it against the people running this place.  Instead, she clung more tightly to Ace, not having to play at being terrified.  
  
"I never knew how bad it is, not really," she whispered as they passed through and out of the Sanctum of Children.  
  
"Just stick with me.  We're gonna make it."  
  
They were entering the inner sanctum, and Mel felt a sense of both relief and dread that they had made it this far.  She wondered how no one had stopped them, but then she realised that everyone was so caught up in the orgy of violence that two more people in the building could go rather well unnoticed.  
  
The big set of doors ahead of them should lead to the room where Urodahs' system was housed.  Before they were within sight of the guards near the doors, Ace pulled Mel aside into an alcove.  
  
"You know I'll never really try to hurt you, yeah?"  
  
"Of course."  
  
"But you know I might have to pretend I'm going to so we can get in?  Only worse than before?"  
  
Mel nodded, and Ace kissed her forehead.  
  
"I love you, Mel.  I'm not gonna hurt you.  Just keep still and let me get us in, and everything'll be fine."  
  
They ducked back out of the alcove and Ace pulled Mel in front of her, sort of pushed her ahead while keeping a grip on her arm.  
  
"Halt.  State your business."  
  
The guard in front of them, really a priest, looked painfully officious, but he also had a rather terrifying grin and blood all over his hands and vestments.  
  
"My woman is pregnant," Ace said, and Mel suddenly heard the snick of a knife being pulled free from its place on Ace's belt.  
"The scans indicate that it's a girl-child, and I doubt it's even mine.  I wish to sacrifice this wench and her filthy spawn to Urodahs personally."  
  
The priest's grin broadened and he gestured to his counterpart.  They went to work shoving the huge doors open, and at that same instant, Mel felt the edge of Ace's knife against the base of her throat.  
  
"My thanks," Ace muttered, but there was a tone of disgust in her voice.  
  
The inner sanctum smelled, somehow, worse than the other chambers, though at least here there seemed to be a cleaning system, hosepipes set into the lower walls and a series of drains in the floor.  Still, there were things snagged in the drains, bits of blood-clotted hair and shreds of what Mel suspected were brain matter and other human tissue.  
  
The moment the doors closed behind them, Ace lowered the knife.  
  
"Let's go to work, Doughnut," she whispered, releasing Mel.  
  
The huge computer in front of them groaned and wheezed; it was having a hard time working, probably due to the utter filth around it mucking up the system.  Mel stepped closer, worried about setting off security alarms, but found that she could go right up to the machine without any incident.  
  
"Ace, I don't think this is an A.I. on the level we were imagining.  Not in the way things have been described, at any rate."  
  
"How d'you mean?"  
  
Mel had managed to pry open a small hatch in the side, was staring at the tangle of wires within, then moved to a small display further on.  
  
"It's - it's more like something cryptographers would've used during World War II.  I'm seeing repeating lines of what look like random numbers, and there seems to be a click-system down here - some rotors..."  
  
"The Ultima Machine!" Ace said.  
  
"Yes, rather like that.  I remember seeing a diagram when I was at university..."  
  
"Well, I saw the real thing.  I'm just hoping this has no connection to what happened then."  
  
"There's no need for a virus," Mel said.  
"The computer's not the problem.  It's just here, I think, to look impressive and scare people who don't know what it is.  It could even be part of some sort of spy network or something; who knows?  At most, it's probably how the priests receive their instructions from whoever's in charge."  
  
Mel tapped her fingers against the small transparent panel through which some of the machine's rotors were visible.  
  
"Glass!  Here, let me borrow your knife."  
  
Ace handed the weapon over, watched Mel slip the tip of the blade into the joint of glass and casing at the side of the panel and slide it down with a slight flick of the wrist at the bottom.  Then she moved the blade and did the same motion from side-to-side at the bottom of the panel.  When she flicked her wrist this time, the glass cracked in a sort of arc and one portion fell out.  Ace had knelt now and caught the glass before it could crackle onto the floor.  
  
"Where'd you learn that?" Ace asked.  
  
"My Uncle John.  Now, if I just interfere slightly here - make an adjustment there," Mel said, reaching into the space she had opened.  Then she stood and went to the first panel she had inspected.  
  
She was humming slightly to herself as she pointed the tip of the knife at various wires in turn before choosing one and slicing through it quickly.  
  
The room went dark.  
  
"Of course, I suppose part of the machine could also provide a power source to the temple proper," Mel whispered, and Ace felt cold, trembling fingers reach for her own through the gloom.  
  
Outside, there were sounds of tumult, and then the great doors of the sanctum were groaning open.  Ace pulled Mel behind the now silent machine, crouched with her there.  They were face to face, barely able to see each other even so close up, but Ace could tell that Mel was mouthing words.  
  
Sorry.  I'm so sorry.  
  
Pressing gentle fingers to Mel's lips, Ace shook her head and pulled the other woman closer.  There were footsteps clattering in the room now; no doubt the priest-guards were spilling in by the dozens.  Ace pulled her blaster from her boot, unlatched the other from her belt and pressed it into Mel's hands.  She gestured along the sides of the machine.  
  
You right, me left, we'll meet up at the front.  
  
Mel nodded as they both stood and ran around the now silent box that had been Urodahs.  Ace heard a sharp, short blast and hoped it had been Mel at least winging a guard.  There was some light from the open doors, filtered through the windows of the hall beyond.  It was enough for Ace to smash one guard's face with the butt of her blaster before she shot the one just behind him, the one wielding a very big scimitar and an oddly gleeful expression.  
  
"Ace!  5 o'clock!"  
  
She glanced in the direction Mel had indicated, saw that another guard had slipped around to train a blaster on her.  Pulling the lash from her belt, she flicked it toward him, stinging the weapon from his hand and then running to knee him in the groin.  She heard another two blasts and spun around.  Mel was belly-down on the floor, blaster raised, and another guard was dropping to his knees, his chest a cavern of smoke.  
  
Mel leapt up, ran to Ace, and grabbed her hand.  
  
"I think we should make a quick exit."  
  
"Great idea," Ace agreed as they ran out of the sanctum, still blasting away where they had to.  There were far too many guards in the hall to feasibly shoot their way through, so Ace picked up a large urn that was to the side of the doors and smashed it through a window.  She fired off a few shots more, then let Mel cover her for a moment while she leaned out of the broken window.  She saw her perfect opportunity and grinned, pulling off her heavy belt and attaching it to the end of the lash.   
  
"Come on!" she called, and when Mel was at her side she grabbed her tight and they stepped onto the window ledge.  
  
"I assume you have a plan?"  
  
"Always wanted to do this," Ace said, swinging the lash under and up and praying that her plan, really more of a sudden and nebulous idea, would work.  
  
The lash-end swung 'round, the belt sagging and twisting enough so that everything stayed hooked over a cross-beam of the framework that jutted over the courtyard.  
  
They did not swing down so much as fall forward slightly elegantly, landing luckily in a rubbish heap.  They rolled out, hearing the sounds of more guards rushing after them, and scrambled to their feet.  
  
They were young and strong and fast, and most of the guards were old and slow, weakened by excess.  It was like nothing to get back to the ship, jam straight through to the bridge and actuate the coordinates that would get them far away through time and space.  
  
Once they were well into the time vortex, Ace made her way back through the ship to find Mel.  She heard the sound of the clear-light system humming in the port shower bay, and figured that Mel deserved a chance to scrub up.  Still, she wanted to check on her.  She tapped on the entry hatch.  
  
"Mel?"  
  
"I'm all right.  I'm fine."  
  
That was a lie; Ace could hear that her companion had been crying.  
  
"Mel, all those things - there was nothing we could've done to stop what's already happened to those people."  
  
"I know that."  
  
"And you've probably shut down their operation; this might even get them properly investigated and stopped at last."  
  
"I know that too."  
  
Sighing, Ace decided to let Mel be alone.  She grabbed her things and made for the starboard shower bay, letting the disinfecting light wash over her for quite a while.  When she stepped out, glad to be in clean clothes that felt right on her again, she could still hear the system running over in Mel's bay.  
  
"Mel?  Sweetheart..."  
  
She paused.  She had never called Mel by that particular endearment, but it felt needed right now.  
  
There was silence from the bay for a moment, and the hatch slid open and Mel was there, naked and weeping.  
  
"Oh, Ace.  All those poor people.  All those children."  
  
And then Mel was in her arms and Ace could do nothing but hold her and kiss her hair and whisper comforting words.  Lies, really, about how everything would be all right from here on in.  
  
"Let's get you to bed," Ace murmured, guiding Mel across the corridor and into the night chamber.  
  
She ran a star program that would be familiar and comforting, Earthsky over England in the latter two decades of the 20th century, and got Mel into the bed, well tucked in and warm.  
  
"Don't leave me," Mel whispered.  
  
"I'm not," Ace said, lying down on top of the sheets.  
  
They lay close together, touching here and there, caressing, passing a gentle kiss between them now and again.  At some point, Ace's hand slid under the bedsheets to stroke down along Mel's body, to caress her hips and sides and the flatness of her abdomen.  
  
"I'm sorry - the things I said to get us in back there..." Ace began.  
  
"You did what you had to," Mel said, rolling so that her face was pressed into Ace's shoulder.  
  
It was perhaps fifteen minutes before Ace sensed that Mel was asleep.  She watched the other woman for a while, saw the troubled expression fade from the soft face, before slipping carefully out of bed to go and check that the flight plan was working out.  
  
The ship touched down with a slight thump.  Ace had decided that Limnos 4 would be a good stop; it was a leisure world, and they needed a holiday after what they had just been through.  
  
As Ace signed off with the port official and switched off the comms, she felt a soft touch on her shoulder.  She had already sensed that she was no longer alone on the bridge, and now she spun in the control chair.  
  
"Have a good sleep?" she asked.  
  
Mel shrugged.  
  
"It was sleep.  Where are we?"  
  
"Limnos 4.  Thought I'd take my girl on a little holiday."  
  
It had taken Ace a moment to realise that Mel was clad in only one of the blankets from their bed, but now she found herself staring.  It was a very good blanket, the material thick but still clingy.  Suddenly, instead of going out and finding fun, she just wanted to take Mel back to bed.  
  
"Am I?" Mel asked suddenly, and Ace let out a confused snort as she looked up.  
  
"Huh?  Are you what?"  
  
"Your - girl.  I mean - are we really..."  
  
Mel trailed off, gnawing nervously at her lower lip.  She looked genuinely worried, maybe even afraid.  
  
"I told you I love you, didn't I?" Ace murmured.  
  
"Yes."  
  
"And you feel like that about me?"  
  
Just a nod this time.  
  
"Then Mel, we're whatever you want us to be.  I want us to be - you know, a regular - us.  But if you don't want it..."  
  
"I do!  Oh, Ace, I - it's just - I've not had a lot of relationships before.  I don't really understand how things are supposed to work, how I'm supposed to act, how we..."  
  
"Love, there's no 'supposed to' about it.  We just have to do what comes naturally."  
  
Standing at last, Ace let her arm slip under the blanket to circle Mel's waist.  
  
"From now on," she continued, "it's all gonna be all right.  I'll look after you, and we won't - we'll not do - I mean - I just mean I'll look after you."  
  
"I - you don't have to look after me, Ace."  
  
"I want to.  If you'll let me."  
  
Mel started to smile again, not as brilliantly as usual, but still a smile.  
  
"I could live with that."


	14. Concupiscence

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> While holidaying on Limnos 4, Ace and Mel at last reach a new stage in their relationship (though not without some bumps in the road along the way.)

"Is this all right?" Ace asked, her fingers trailing gently up and down along the soft skin of Mel's inner thighs.  
  
"Yes.  Oh, perfectly."  
  
Ace dared not touch any place that might scare Mel or make her uncomfortable, but she could see and feel that what little she was doing was beginning to bring a strong reaction.  
  
"Let's - go back to the hotel," she muttered, pressing hungry kisses to the side of Mel's neck.  
  
"No."  
  
"Hmm?"  
  
Mel pushed her away a bit, gentle hands on her shoulders.  Ace, for her part, kept her head down.  She had got too carried away, could feel herself half-changing.  She knew her eyes, golden now rather than the usual hazel, and with the pupils gone to slits, would be enough to kill the mood.  Still, a part of her wanted to struggle out of Mel's grasp and dive back in for more.  
  
"Let's go back to the ship," Mel whispered.  
"That's - that's home."  
  
"Home.  Mmm."  
  
She let Mel take her hand gently, and she swallowed hard, fighting down the last of the urge to just take control.  Sometimes the Cheetah nature came in handy, but this would not be a time for that.  
  
In the streets, they got caught in the regularly scheduled light rain.  Mel laughed, pulled her jacket tighter around her, and dashed off in the direction of the spaceport.  Ace went after her, laughing too, enjoying the warm precipitation.  
  
They stopped once in a doorway, waiting out a moment where the rainfall got heavier.  Pressing Mel against the door, Ace kissed her again, softly, and was pleased with the little moan that she felt from the other woman.  
  
"Are you happy?" Mel asked.  
  
"Yeah.  You?"  
  
"Mm-hmm.  I really want this - it's been such a special night, and I want to go on with it."  
  
Ace growled deep in her throat, without meaning to.  Her fingers stroked Mel's cheek carefully.  
  
"You know," she murmured, "we don't have to.  Go on, I mean."  
  
"But I want to.  Unless you don't."  
  
"Oh, I do, but - Mel, sometimes I'm a bit rough.  I don't wanna - hurt you or something."  
  
Mel smiled, fingers twining into Ace's hair.  
  
"I'm tougher than I look."  
  
She peered over Ace's shoulder, and her smile widened a touch.  
  
"The rain's stopped.  Come on.  Race you to the port!"  
  
They had not very far to go when a noise from across the landing fields drew them up short.  
  
"What was..."  
  
"Blaster fire.  Mel, get to the ship!"  
  
They both bolted toward the hangar, hearing another exchange of shots somewhere behind them.  Ace had already slapped the small control in her pocket that would open the rear cargo hatch, and by the time she raced up and sprawled onto the decking, Mel was ahead of her, opening up the airlock.  Kicking back sharply, Ace managed to hit the switch to close hatch, then continued to lie there, breathless.  There were no more sounds from outside, but then, the ship was very well shielded and insulated.  
  
After a long time, Mel came and sat down beside her.  
  
"Are you all right?"  
  
"Yeah.  Just - ran more than I realised."  
  
"I do hate how events just seem to - happen around us."  
  
Ace rolled onto her back and gazed up at Mel.  
  
"I really hope that was just drunken tourist taking potshots at things.  I am in no mood to get mixed up in some big ordeal."  
  
"Oh?  Ace McShane, woman of action, isn't looking for any at the moment?"  
  
Grinning and folding her hands behind her head, Ace chuckled.  
  
"Well, not that kind of action."  
  
Mel leant down and kissed her forehead, and then suddenly moved to straddle her hips.  
  
"Was this more what you had in mind?"  
  
Mel's skirt had ridden up, and a glance down in that direction revealed a sight Ace had never been able to resist.  
  
Plain white knickers.  
  
"We need to get to bed.  Now."  
  
Another little lean-down-and-kiss, then Mel smiled.  
  
"Race you."  
  
Then she was up and gone.  Ace got up slowly, shakily, and followed after.  
  
In the nightchamber, Mel was already undressed, snuggled down among the blankets and waiting.  Her cheerful demeanor seemed to have dimmed, and Ace knew that she must be having second thoughts.  
  
"If you're scared..."  
  
"I'm not.  Honestly.  I've just - I've never done - much..."  
  
Ace sat on the edge of the bed and took Mel's hand, kissing it softly.  
  
"It's all right."  
  
Mel turned her face away.  Even in the darkness, Ace could see her blush with - what?  Shame?  Embarrassment?  
  
"We don't have to do anything you're not ready for."  
  
Ace started to move away, to leave the chamber.  
  
"Where are you going?" Mel whispered.  
  
"I'm going to sleep in one of the pods.  I - don't want you to feel weird or anything.  I won't do something that'll hurt you, Mel.  Promise."  
  
"It'll hurt me if you go away."  
  
Mel had turned away now, back to Ace, and there was something about the curl of her, the way she looked so lost alone in their bed, that drew Ace back.  Kicking off her boots and tossing her other outer garments off, Ace crawled into their bed and wrapped an arm around Mel's waist.  
  
"Just relax.  I've gotcha."  
  
"Oh, Ace."  
  
Mel suddenly turned over onto her back, both of her hands wrapping around Ace's gently caressing one.  She pushed it lower, just a bit, toward the meeting of her thighs.  
  
"Please.  I - you won't hurt me.  I want to - want you to - please?"  
  
"Okay.  Just breathe," Ace whispered, her fingers trailing down past the firm muscles of Mel's abdomen, through red curls, to the heat and wetness beyond.  
  
Mel's hips jerked upward slightly and she moaned when a fingertip slipped into the cleft of her sex, and then Ace was kissing her, touching her gently.  
  
Ace, for her part, felt a kind of thrill of fear when she finally had access to Mel's sex.  Suppose she did something wrong?  After all, she knew what she liked, but she was a blank slate as far as what might feel good to Mel.  
  
But then Mel was moaning, whimpering, writhing, and it must have been good for her because she pressed closer to Ace, deepened the gentle kisses that were offered.  Her hands had found the waistband of Ace's trunks, and she was fumblingly trying to get them off.  At that, Ace drew away, and Mel let out a small, disappointed sound.  
  
"Hold on.  I'll be right back to you.  Just - hold on."  
  
Shucking her undergarments, Ace crawled back into the bed and settled on top of Mel gently, thrusting her hips down and feeling slender legs wrap around them.  
  
"Ace - please..."  
  
"Okay, sweetheart.  Let's go easy.  Easy."  
  
Ace felt heat against her mound, and wetness besides.  Mel was ready for anything, it seemed.  They tried to kiss again, but their noses bumped softly together.  Mel giggled, only to sigh when Ace ground down against her.  
  
The animal part of her was revving up again.  It had been a while, and she really wanted this.  She wanted to fuck, but also to make love.  
  
Of course, the animal part of her wanted to mate.  
  
She settled in, resting on Mel lightly, tucking her head down so that she could lick and bite at the skin between Mel's shoulder and neck.  She had the other woman writhing, just like she wanted, had her groaning.  
  
And so she pulled away again, grinning wickedly before leaving a trail of rough kisses down along Mel's body.  
  
"Ace what - oh.  Oh, my - Ace..."  
  
As Ace had expected, Mel tasted pleasant.  It was nothing mind-blowing; just a clean, typical flavour.  Still, better than some things she had experienced.  Oh, and the noises that Mel made when Ace's tongue flickered over her clit.  Thin fingers gripped Ace's hair tight, drawing her in, pulling her close.  There was a little bit of tensing up when two of Ace's fingers eased into Mel's core, but after that it was smooth sailing.  
  
Sliding her free hand down to her own crotch, Ace fiddled herself.  She could bring herself off quite easily without being distracted from the work of making Mel come.  
  
And when Mel came, it was all soft mewling and begging for more, somehow.  Ace's fingers felt trapped, as if they would never come free in a million years.  She lapped soothingly at the bud of Mel's clit by way of calming things, but that only brought on another climax.  Her own shot through her a moment later and she howled against Mel's softness, humping hard against the blanket for a moment before everything went quiet and still.  
  
Dragging herself up a little, Ace rested her head on Mel's lower abdomen.  Her lover's fingers were still in her hair, but they were stroking gently now.  She was being looked after and loved.  
  
"That was so beautiful," Mel breathed a long while later, once Ace had finally managed to scramble up beside her for a cuddle.  
  
"You're beautiful too," Ace assured, fighting the sudden wave of exhaustion that had rolled over her.  
  
At some point they both slept, but only briefly.  When they woke, the chamber was still fully on night-cycle.  They kissed and teased, then made love again, trying different things.  This time, when each of them came, they were face-to-face, holding each other, and Ace kissed Mel as they were both coming down.  
  
"All right?" she asked, and Mel nodded, smiling almost shyly.  
  
"Thank you."  
  
Ace pulled Mel closer and stroked her hair.  
  
"Any time, Mel.  Seriously.  Any time."


End file.
